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REV. EDGAR H. OLM STEAD. 



Ye Church and Parish 
of Greenfield 



the story of an 



Historic Church in an Historic Town 



1725-1913 



BY 

GEORGE H. MERWIN 



Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may 
tell it to the generation following. Psalm 48:13. 



^>*3 



77* + 

-G1M5 



THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE A TAYLOR PRE88 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Dedication 5 

Foreword 7 

CHAPTER 

I. The Parish in its Infancy 9 

II. Rev. John Goodsell, 1726-1756 15 

III. Rev. Seth Pomeroy, 1757-177° 32 

IV. Rev. William M. Tennant, 1772-1781 42 

V. Rev. Timothy Dwight, 1783-1795 47 

VI. Rev. Horace Holly and other Pastors, 1795-1812 61 

VII. ^Rev. William Belden and other Pastors, 1812-1841 66 

VIII. Rev. T. B. Sturges, 1842-1867 75 

IX. Revs. R. P. Hibbard and H. B. Smith, 1868-1877 87 

X. Later Pastors, 1877-1913 94 

Appendix : 

List of Pastors 104 

List of Deacons 105 

Deeds Showing Location of Rev. John Goodsell's Prop- 
erty 106 

Map of Greenfield in the Early Days facing page 106 



TO 

THE TWENTY OR MORE PASTORS OF THE GREENFIELD CHURCH 

IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF THEIR 

FAITHFUL, UNSELFISH AND UNTIRING DEVOTION TO DUTY, 

WHOSE EFFORTS IN MANY CASES WERE NOT FULLY 

APPRECIATED UNTIL THEIR REMOVAL TO OTHER 

FIELDS OF LABOR, OR THEIR DEPARTURE TO 

THE GREAT BEYOND, THESE PAGES ARE 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



FOREWORD. 

A CHURCH that has had an honorable existence 
through more than six generations and is fast 
approaching its two-hundredth milestone most certainly 
deserves a printed record of its achievements. Although 
there may be a few pages of the 186 years of our history 
to which we cannot point with pride, yet the record in the 
main is one in which we glory and compares favorably 
with any sister church in our land. A study of the years 
gone by brings to light as noble and as self-sacrificing a 
body of Christian men and women and as brilliant, gifted 
and earnest a band of preachers as have ever labored 
together in a country parish in New England. 

When we stop to consider the hallowed associations that 
cluster around our four old meeting-houses, within whose 
walls have been preached sermons that are moving the 
world to-day, we cannot but wish that their memory might 
be perpetuated. Our pride still further swells as we recall 
that Greenfield enjoys the distinction of having furnished 
Yale College with one of the most noted presidents she 
ever had, or in the words of Judge Sherman of Fairfield, 
"No man, except the father of his country, ever conferred 
greater benefit on our nation than President Dwight, the 
fourth pastor of the Greenfield Church." 

So this history is written and published in the hope that 
the rising generation may read it and become familiar with 
a church that has had its part in the shaping of a nation; 
and it is written with the idea of preserving whatever 
information the older residents of the parish can furnish 
us before it is too late. There is never a death of an old 
resident in the parish but a feeling of sadness comes over 
us, for never again can that dear one tell us of the days 



8 Forezvord 

of long ago. And moreover the handwriting of our church 
and parish records is fast becoming indistinct, and the 
pages themselves from age as well as from being handled 
and rehandled, bound and rebound, indicate that these old 
records of our forefathers will in time crumble to decay; 
so in these pages that follow there will be preserved the 
most important of the events of our church's history. 

There are many churches in Connecticut as old or older 
than our own, but the history of their earlier days is 
usually shrouded in a good deal of uncertainty. For exam- 
ple, the mother church at Fairfield, known as the Prime 
Ancient Society, considers 1639 as tne starting point, but 
up to nearly the end of that century very little is known 
of her history, the records having become lost. We claim, 
however, to have in our possession all the records of our 
existence as a church, although they are in many respects 
incomplete. 

In the preparation of the pages that follow, the writer 
has found the historical discourse of Rev. H. B. Smith, 
delivered in 1876, of great value. We are indebted to 
Mrs. Milbank for several of the illustrations; and there 
are others who have contributed in various ways, to whom 
thanks are due. No doubt between these covers are errors 
and omissions, particularly in dates and names, which may 
be accounted for to some extent in having been prepared 
from records which were often carelessly written, and 
to-day are not in the best state of preservation. Perhaps 
in the years to come some student of history will dig deeper 
down into the past and add to these pages further facts 
that shall be of interest to us all. 

G. H. M. 
Greenfield Hill, Conn., March 4, 1913. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Parish in its Infancy. 

THE Northwest Parish of Fairfield, now called Green- 
field, had its beginning in the year 1725. From the 
time of the first settlement of the town in 1639, the resi- 
dents of this section had on every Sabbath day made the 
long journey to the Fairfield Church, there to worship their 
God. Rev. John Jones had been the pastor there up to 
1664, followed by Rev. Samuel Wakeman, who preached 
until 1692, and now Rev. Joseph Webb, already well 
advanced in years, and so feeble as to require an assistant, 
had been preaching to them the words of life for more 
than a generation. But in the month of May, 1725, the 
following petition was sent to the General Assembly, in 
conformity with the law concerning the formation of new 
parishes and the erection of new houses of worship : 

"To the Honorable General Assembly sitting at Hartford the sec- 
ond Thursday of May, 1725. The humble prayer of the inhabitants 
of Fairfield North Village humbly sheweth, that there are about 
fifty-five families living north of Fairfield, at a considerable distance 
from the town, some five or six miles, and the nearest of them 
about two miles and a half or more, whose lists amount to 4,000 
pounds, which inhabitants labor under great difficulties on account 
of their enjoyment of some of the precious means of grace, espe- 
cially the proclaiming of the word of life, in the ordinary way and 
means God uses in the conversion and bringing home poor, lost 
and undone sinners. Not only ourselves are frequently obliged to 
be absent from divine worship, but our poor children are under a 
kind of necessity of perishing for lack of vision, both which are 
very troublesome to those who are inquiring what they shall do to 
be saved, and that are hungering and thirsting after Christ and 
salvation and righteousness in and through him. The distance of 
the way, especially in bad weather, utterly incapacitates many per- 



io Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

sons, old and young, to go to the house of God, which makes us 
willing rather to expend considerable of our earthly treasure in 
maintaining the public worship of God among ourselves, than to 
lose our spiritual treasure and undo any of our poor immortal souls, 
esteeming each of them better than a one thousand worlds. 

"Hoping and humbly begging and praying that the honorable 
gentlemen of the Assembly will pity us, and be nursing fathers to 
us, and deal with us as they would be dealt with; encouraging of 
us in our endeavor to honor God and obtain eternal happiness 
beyond the grave, that they would please to consider that there are 
many places made district societies, the less than we, and nearer 
the town; as West Haven, Newington, and many others; and 
also that the town from which we separate is well able to maintain 
their minister without us, they having without us, 13,000 pounds 
on their list. If the Honorable General Assembly will be pleased 
to hear this our prayer, we will ever pray, etc. 

Signed by Thomas Hill and sixty-nine other men. 

On consideration had in the lower house this petition was rejected. 

Test, Theodore Kimberly, Clerk." 



The time was not yet ripe for the formation of another 
parish, for strange as it may seem to-day, the mother 
church at Fairfield strongly opposed a separation, and even 
sent her agent to Hartford to present arguments against 
it, evidently believing the people of the northern section 
of the town could make the long journey for generations 
to come. Many of the church supporters from the upper 
parts of the town were men of means and the old society 
could not think of letting them go without a struggle. But 
through the persistence of Thomas Hill and a number of 
others, another petition was soon presented to the Hon- 
orable General Assembly, asking for a committee from that 
body to come down, look over the parish and report to 
the next Assembly in October of that year. This petition 
was granted and the committee was appointed consisting of 
Messrs. Copp, Lewis and Hawley. These men took back 
such a favorable report that the General Assembly at once 



The Parish in its Infancy n 

ordered the formation of a new parish, to be known as the 
Northwest Parish of Fairfield, as shown by the following 
order signed by the secretary of state : 

"At a General Assembly holden at New Haven, in his Majesty's 
Colony of Connecticut, in New England, on the 14th day of October, 
in the 12th year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George, King 
of Great Britain, 1725, upon ye petition of Thomas Hill of Fairfield 
in behalf of himself and others of his neighbors living within ye 
bounds following : westerly by the west parish in said Fairfield ; 
south-southwest by the rear of the building lots in Fairfield; east- 
erly by the Mill River, so called; east-northeasterly by ye parish 
of Stratfield; north by the north bounds of Fairfield; first brought 
to this Assembly in May last and continued to this Assembly, 
desiring they may be made a parish : 

This Assembly after hearing ye reasons offered by Mr. Ebenezer 
Wakeman, agent for the old parish in Fairfield why said Hill and 
neighbors should not have parish privileges granted them, as well 
as the arguments of said petitioners why they should be a parish ; 
do hereby order and grant that said petitioners shall be a parish 
and are hereby enabled to set up the worship of God among them- 
selves, and that the bounds above said shall be the bounds of said 
parish, and so be and remain until this Assembly shall order other- 
wise; and it is hereby enacted that said parish shall have and be 
allowed all the privileges and advantages as are by law allowed 
to other parishes in this government. 

A true copy of Record; 

Examined by Hoz. Wyllys, Secretary." 

In less than three weeks from the date of the above enact- 
ment of the General Assembly, there was assembled the 
first parish meeting ever held upon this hill. The exact 
date was November 4, 1725 ; Dr. John Hide was chosen 
the moderator and Thomas Hill the clerk. It is a matter 
of interest to note that practically the only business trans- 
acted was to choose a committee consisting of Dr. John 
Hide, George Hull, Benj. Banks, Jehu Burr, and Peter 
Burr, to treat with one, a Rev. John Goodsell, in regard 
to "settlement in the ministry." 



i2 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

The parish at this time was large in extent, for it reached 
to the section known as Redding on the north and on the 
south to a line which ran across the town a few rods 
south of what is now the entrance to Oak Lawn Cemetery, 
and was marked by a rough rock which has recently been 
reset and lettered by the late Dr. I. D. Warner, the owner 
of the adjoining property. The population within these 
bounds was perhaps somewhere between 400 and 600 
people. 

Just one week after the first parish meeting a second 
was held, this time to arrange for a school. Thus we see 
that the cause of education among our forefathers was 
destined to go hand in hand with the preaching of the 
gospel, and ever since then in hundreds of towns in old 
Connecticut, the church and the school have stood side by 
side, the one standing for the building of character, the 
other for the development of the mind. At that meeting, 
November 11, 1725, it was decided "that the meeting-house 
shall be the place for the school to be kept six months of 
the year"; also voted "that the country money shall not 
be divided; and that what the country money lacketh of 
maintaining the school, shall be paid by the scholars pro- 
portionately, according to the time they go to school." The 
school committee appointed consisted of Joseph Rowland, 
Moses Ward and Jehu Burr. 

The meeting-house mentioned above was no doubt a 
small building erected before the division of the parish, 
to be used for school purposes and stood near where the 
flag-pole is now located, towards the southwest corner of 
the present school green. Some sixty years ago, after the 
"new academy" was built, this little school building was 
purchased by Mr. Samuel Grant to be used as his shoe- 
shop, and may be seen to-day in its dilapidated condition, 
just at the foot of Academy hill, now the property of Mrs. 
Lloyd Griscom. This same building is mentioned in the 



The Parish in its Infancy 13 

old parish record book, as being the market-place for sheep- 
proprietors two nights each week, as follows : 

"Jan. 25, 1726. Att a meeting of ye proprietors of ye sheep of 
ye Northwest Parish of Fairfield it was voated by ye maj'r part of 
sd proprietors of sheep that there should be a flock of sheep keept 
in sd parish for ye summer ensuing and Thomas Hill, Moses Dimon, 
Jr., and Benj. Banks was all chosen by a maj'r voate of sd pro- 
prietors to be sheep-masters for ye yeare ensuing to take of ye sd 
flock of sheep and to hiare sum meet person to keep these sd 
flocks of sheep belonging to sd proprietors. 

"And it was also voated that ye sd Moses Dimon, should let ye 
sd flock of sheep and keep ye account what they fetch and to whom 
they are let, and it was also voated ye place to let ye sd sheep should 
be att ye House where ye sd parish now meets on ye Sabbath 
Days, and ye time to let sd sheep should be on Monday and Friday 
nights." 

Evidently the above refers to the pasturage of the com- 
mon, a large part of the Northwest Parish being located 
on what was originally the "mile of common," and there 
being at this time, 1726, still much common and unoccupied 
land. It might be mentioned in passing that the southern 
boundary line of the original mile of common was the road 
extending along what we now call the pumping station 
near Samp Mortar, westerly past the old Bulkley's district 
school corner and continuing westerly from there along 
the foot of White's Hill, joining the Hull's Farm road 
to Westport. From this line as a base, the common had 
originally extended, one mile in width up to Redding, but 
of course was now fast being distributed to settlers. 

The third parish meeting on record was held January 
10, 1726. Jehu Burr and Thomas Hill were appointed a 
committee to settle up accounts with the old Fairfield 
parish, and find what was due them from this society. At 
this meeting it was voted that two sign-posts should be 
erected, one at ye meeting-house and one at Hull's Farms, 
these to be used for parish meeting warnings; and it was 



14 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

agreed that in the future any warning signed by the com- 
mittee or clerk and placed upon these posts five days before 
the meeting should be legal. 

On one of the rear fly leaves in the oldest record book 
of the society is the following order dated 1726, and signed 
by the captain of the military train-band : 

"Northwest Parish of Fairfield under Capt. Thomas Hill ; 
ordered that ye training days shall be warned by one sergeant and 
a drummer with him, to beat from Samuel Whitlock's house to 
Joseph Barlow's, and ye sergeant to make proclamation when ye 
day is to be; and the place of rendezvous is to be by Samuel 
Whitlock's house. 

Entered by me, Thomas Hill, Capt." 

These few lines with such a military ring give something 
of an insight into the old training days of nearly 200 years 
ago, and which were continued upon our hill down to within 
the memory of our older inhabitants. The location of the 
Whitlock and Barlow homesteads is to-day a matter of 
conjecture. The fact that the home-lots or farms of many 
of the earliest settlers were bounded in part or on all sides 
by common land, leaves us to-day with no method of deter- 
mining the exact place where their homes were located. 
It is quite probable that the Whitlock house may have been 
on or near the spot where now stands the residence of the 
late Agnes Murray. 



CHAPTER II. 
Rev. John Goodsell, i 726-1 756. 

REV. JOHN GOODSELL began his ministry in the 
Northwest Parish on November 1, 1725, being at that 
time under nineteen years of age. He came from Strat- 
ford, Conn., where he was born December 21, 1706. He 
had graduated from Yale College in 1724, and had married 
Mary Lewis, also of Stratford, July 20, 1725. 

At the time of the beginning of his pastorate in this 
place there was no organized church and no church cove- 
nant had been adopted. The committee of five men 
appointed by the parish November 4, 1725, had made a 
business agreement with Mr. Goodsell whereby he was to 
settle permanently in the parish. The agreement follows: 

"This indenture or agreement is to signify to all to whom it shall 
come that I, John Goodsell of Fairfield, in the colony of Connecticut 
in New England, being of the one party, and we, John Hide, 
Benjamin Banks, George Hull, Jehu Burr, and Peter Burr, all of 
said Fairfield, being of the other party, and being chosen a com- 
mittee by the Northwest Society of said Fairfield to agree with and 
settle a minister according to the laws of this colony, have and do 
with the approbation of this Society covenant with the abovesaid 
John Goodsell as follows : 

That is to say, I the aforesaid John Goodsell being entreated 
with by the abovesaid committee do promise by God's assistance to 
preach the word of life and officiate in the ministry in the said 
society according to the present profession of this government, for 
a consideration of an hundred pound per year of bills of credit of 
this colony to be paid yearly for my salary; and we, the abovesaid 
committee do, with the consent and desire of the aforesaid society, 
promise that the abovesaid John Goodsell, beginning the time of his 
service the first of this instant November, for the time being, and 
as long as he shall continue in the work of ye ministry, and after- 
wards when through age or other inability he is unable, to give 



1 6 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

him an honorable support or maintenance; shall have one hundred 
of pounds current bills of credit of this colony a year for his 
salary, or other bills of credit that currently pass in said colony 
equivolently; provided the aforesaid John Goodsell shall not neglect 
the said service by his own default; and I, the abovesaid John 
Goodsell, do by these presents, covenant, promise and oblige myself 
faithfully to perform the abovesaid service as providence shall per- 
mit ; and we the abovesaid committee, do by these presents covenant, 
promise and engage that the abovesaid sum of an hundred pounds 
shall be the stated salary which the abovesaid John Goodsell shall 
receive yearly for his service for the time being and hereafter as 
above expressed. 

In witness hereof we subscribe with our hands and seals November 
ist, 1725." 

Signed, sealed and delivered John Goodsell seal 

in the presence of: Benjamin Banks seal 

David Williams John Hide seal 

Joseph Banks George Hull seal 

Jehu Burr seal 

Peter Burr seal 

In the spring of 1726 some members of the parish began 
to be anxious to subscribe to a form of church covenant; 
and also to ordain the Rev. Mr. Goodsell as pastor. 
Accordingly on March 28, the parish voted that the third 
Wednesday of May should be the day to ordain Mr. Good- 
sell, and that the house we meet in should be the place in 
which to ordain him. Thomas Hill and Moses Dimon, Jr., 
were chosen the committee for the society to "sign the 
letters to ye elders, and to take care of ye elders, and 
provide a place to entertain them with ye messengers." 

So on May 18, 1726, Rev. John Goodsell was ordained, 
the service taking place in the little rough old school build- 
ing, 18 by 20 feet, and on the same day the following church 
covenant was "subscribed to by the christian professors 
of Fairfield Northwest parish, embodied in a church state 
by divine allowance" : 



Rev. John Goodsell, 1726-17 56 17 

"We, underwritten, through the strength of Christ, without whom 
we can do nothing, and in the presence of God and this assembly, 
do covenant and promise to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, and 
live soberly, righteously and godly in this present evil world; sol- 
emnly avouching the Lord Jehovah to be our God, and the God 
of our seed, giving up ourselves and ours to be his people, to live 
to the glory of his great name; solemnly avouching also the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man, to be our 
Prophet and Teacher, our only Priest and Propitiation, our Supreme 
Lord and Law Giver, professing ourselves heartily engaged to a 
sole dependence on His doctrine, to an entire reliance on His 
righteousness, to a willing obedience to His government; solemnly 
avouching also the Holy Ghost for our Sanctifier and Comforter, 
to be led by His conduct, to cherish and entertain His holy motions 
and influences, subjecting ourselves to the government of Christ in 
His church, and solemnly engaging to walk one with another in 
brotherly love, watchfulness and communion, and hereto may Christ 
Jesus our Lord help us. Amen." 

To this covenant subscribed eleven men, all recommended 
by the Prime Society of Fairfield, except John Goodsell, 
who was recommended by the church at Stratford, and 
Theophilus Hull, recommended by the church at Green's 
Farms. This original covenant and the one adopted at the 
organization of the Green's Farms church in 171 5 were 
almost identical, each having been taken in all probability 
from the mother church at Fairfield, whose earliest records 
have been lost. 

On June 19, 1726, fifteen women were recommended by 
some of the neighboring churches, and added to this church 
by consent of the eleven brethren, and so the church grew 
until at the end of the first year it numbered seventy 
members, thirty-one of whom were added on profession of 
their faith. 

For nearly a year after Rev. John Goodsell settled in the 
parish the little school-building also served as the meeting- 
house and in it were held all Sabbath-day services and all 
parish meetings. On October 7, 1726, the parish voted 



1 8 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

"that a meeting-house should be built at their own charge, 
to be begun the year ensuing; that its dimensions should 
be : length 52 feet, width 42 feet, and 24 or 25 feet between 
joints (referring to the height of posts) ; that it shall be set 
and stand halfway between Samuel Whitlock's northwest 
corner of his home lot, and the meeting-house where Ave 
now meet; that Thomas Hill, Jehu Burr, Moses Dimon 
and Benjamin Banks shall be a committee to take care of 
building the meeting-house, and agree with some person 
or persons to build the same." 

The builders of this house of God were Samuel Thorpe 
and Benjamin Darling, and they did their work so well 
that a year later they were voted five pounds, twelve shil- 
lings more than their bargain for framing the building; 
this amount to be deducted from their tax rate the year 
ensuing and the year thereafter. This meeting-house must 
have been well-built, well-proportioned and comely for its 
day, since from the Green's Farms records we learn that 
in 1737 a committee from that place came up to visit 
Greenfield meeting-house and get ideas. They erected 
soon after a building of almost the same dimensions but 
with belfry and short spire. 

The location of this, the first real church that ever stood 
upon this hill, has for many years been a matter of much 
speculation. While it stood and people worshipped there 
for thirty years and more, yet no one has handed down to 
us a record that can tell us just where was the exact spot 
of ground over which the Rev. John Goodsell preached 
those 3000 or more sermons of his long pastorate. We 
have a hint as to the location, given in the above vote of 
the parish meeting, and again in 1757 when the piece of 
property now the residence and home lot of Wm. H. 
Banks, was described, it was stated as "lying and being 
near the meeting-house" ; so no doubt this first house of 
worship occupied a part of the triangular spot of ground 



Rev. John Goodsell, 1 726-1 756 19 

between the residences of Wm. H. Banks and Mrs. Mary 
N. Milbank. Many of the older residents of the parish 
agree that this was the precise location, basing their opinion 
on what has been told them by parents or grandparents. 
Of course it is not impossible that the first church build- 
ing may even have stood where to-day runs the highway 
northwest by southeast, past the Banks and Milbank resi- 
dences, for Connecticut history states that it was not until 
about 1750 that carriages and wagons were used by a few 
wealthy in the larger towns, ox-carts and sleds being used 
for carrying produce, and journeys for business or pleasure 
being made on horseback. So the highways of to-day were 
nothing more than crooked paths and perhaps not even 
that in 1750. It is earnestly hoped that when the site of 
the first church on this hill shall have been determined 
that some public-spirited and loyal citizen or body of citi- 
zens shall cause to be erected there a monument with the 
proper inscription, so that generations to come shall never 
forget where stood the first temple in which Rev. John 
Goodsell so faithfully ministered. 

It was during the year 1727 that the name of the parish 
was changed from Northwest Parish to Greenfield, as the 
following record will show : 

"CONNECTICUT COLONY. 
At a General Assembly holden at New Haven, in His Majesty's 
Colony of Connecticut, in New England, on the 12th day of October, 
in the first year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George Second, 
King of Great Britain, 1727. This Assembly orders that the North- 
west Parish of Fairfield shall be called by the name of Greenfield, 
and be so recorded." 



The first time that the parish is called by the new name 
of Greenfield on the records is December 16, 1728. 

The new meeting-house which was so acceptably framed 
during the summer of 1727, was not completed at once. 



20 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

The members of the parish were evidently not inclined to 
tax themselves too heavily during any one year, for we 
must remember that all parish expenses were met by a 
tax rate levied at the annual parish meeting precisely the 
same as we now levy the annual town tax. So each year, 
for five years or more, the parish voted to raise a rate for 
Mr. Goodsell's salary, and for the carrying on of the work 
on the meeting-house. We have conclusive evidence that 
the new meeting-house was in use at least as early as 1730 
for the records of the meeting held October 13 of that 
year state that "ye school shall be kept in ye old school- 
house where ye parish used to meet in." 

We note the scarcity of clocks and watches by one of 
the records of this year which states that a meeting was 
adjourned until Monday next, sun an hour high at night. 

In the early days at Greenfield all school matters were 
decided at parish meetings, and at least one meeting each 
year was wholly or in part devoted to school questions, 
up to the year 1798. At first school was kept only six 
months of the year, and that at Greenfield center. A few 
years later, it was kept four months at Hull's Farms, four 
months at Banks' Farms, and four months at the center. 
On October 27, 1796, it was voted "to form said parish 
into a school society agreeable to an act of the General 
Assembly of the state of Connecticut made in 1795, entitled 
'an act appropriating the moneys which shall arise on sale 
of western lands belonging to the state of Connecticut' and 
also to choose proper officers for said school society." 
Accordingly, in March, 1797, a committee consisting of 
Eben. Hill, Lewis Goodsell, John Albert, David Hubbell, 
Jonathan Banks, Abel Wakeman and Hull Bradley, was 
appointed for the purpose of dividing and limiting the 
several school districts of the parish. This committee laid 
out eight districts and placed the bounds of the same on 
record. The districts are these: Center, Hull's Farms, 



Rev. John Goodsell, 1726-1756 21 

Bulkley's, Burr's, Banks', Sherwood's, Deerfield, and Hoy- 
den's Hill. In October, 1798, we find the last mention of 
schools or school meetings on parish records, after that 
time each district looking out for itself. 

At a meeting held December 11, 1730, the sign-post at 
ye old school-house was ordered to be removed to ye new 
meeting-house; it was at this same meeting that we find 
the first written indication that Rev. Mr. Goodsell's services 
were appreciated, the record stating that the parish shall 
provide his firewood ; appoints David Williams to furnish 
it for three pounds, nine shillings, and at the same time 
raises his salary twenty-five pounds. 

In 1732, a question that seemed to be particularly in 
agitation throughout the parish was the matter of what 
was called "parsonage lands." It seems that the prime 
society at Fairfield owned a considerable amount of land, 
the income of which belonged to the settled preacher. The 
daughter churches, Greenfield, Green's Farms, Redding, 
and Stratfield, now supporting resident preachers at their 
own expense, claimed a share of the income from this land. 
Greenfield parish had voted to give Rev. John Goodsell the 
benefit of any income from parsonage lands during his 
continuance in the ministry among them, and now appointed 
"Jehu Burr, Daniel Williams, and Benj. Gilbert a commit- 
tee to use all measures they think fit to obtain this parish's 
share." This same action was repeated at subsequent 
meetings, and the parish even voted that if an agreement 
with the prime society could not be made, to apply to the 
court. But an agreement was made and adopted on March 
15, 1733- 

"This parish adopts ye agreement concerning all lands called 
'parsonage lands' in this township, in an instrument bearing date ye 
8th day of March 1733, made by their committee and ye committees 
of ye several societies, parishes, and parties concerned therein and 



22 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

order ye same to put on our parish records, and moreover, we 
confirm ye said agreement in all parts and particulars thereof that 
concern this parish, and make ye same binding to this parish 
forever. 

Voted, 'nemine contradicente' 
Whereas we, ye committee of ye Prime Society of ye town of 
Fairfield in ye county of Fairfield and colony of Connecticut, and 
ye committees of ye parishes in said Fairfield viz. : that part of 
Stratfield that lies in ye town of Fairfield, ye West Parish, Green- 
field, and Redding parishes, being appointed and authorized by ye 
said Prime Society -and ye said parishes, to agree about and concern- 
ing ye lands called 'parsonage lands' in said Fairfield, and for a 
full and final determination of that matter; it is mutually agreed 
and concluded by ye aforesaid committees that all ye lands called 
'parsonage lands' in said Fairfield shall be sold by a committee 
appointed for that purpose by ye town of Fairfield at ye next 
meeting, and that ye said Prime Society shall have ye one-half 
of ye money which all said land shall be sold for excepting ye lot 
by ye school-house, which lot we do agree shall be sold and ye said 
Prime Society shall have three-quarters of ye money which said 
lot shall be sold for; and that that part of Stratfield lying in said 
Fairfield, and ye aforesaid parishes shall have ye remainder of ye 
money which said 'parsonage land' and said lot shall be sold for as 
aforesaid, to be divided between them in ye following manner, viz : 
ye West Parish to have one-third part of it, and Greenfield Parish 
another third part thereof, and that part of said Stratfield lying in 
said Fairfield, and Redding, ye other part betwixt them to be 
divided as follows: Redding to have one-third part of said third, 
and ye aforesaid part of Stratfield two-thirds of said third; and 
also it is agreed that ye whole of ye money that said land shall sell for 
shall be by ye several societies put into ye hands of their respective 
committees by them appointed for that purpose, to be let out to best 
advantage and ye interest therof to be improved for ye maintenance 
and support of ye present ministers of ye Gospel which are settled 
agreeable to ye platform of church government agreed upon by ye 
reverend elders and messengers convened at Saybrook, A. D. 1708, 
which is established by an act of ye government made in ye seventh 
year of ye reign of Queen Anne, entitled, 'An Act in Approbation 
of ye Reverend Elders and Messengers of all ye Churches in this 
Government, etc.,' and to their successors forever, being of the same 
persuasion. 



(^nt/jM&d? 



FACSIMILE OF REV. JOHN GOOD SELL" S HAND-WRITING. 



Rev. John Goodsell, 1226-1/36 



2 3 



In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this 
8th day of March A. D. 1733" 

Signed and sealed in the Presence of us: 



Simon Couch 
Joseph Frost 
Samuel Sherwood 



John Goodsell \ _ . , 

1 „ 7 „ / Committee for 

Samuel Wakeman v ' 

Eliphalet Hull ) 



Stephen Burr ) Committee for Redding 
John Read j 

John Burr > Committee for S trat field 
John Odell ) 



Samuel Couch 
Thomas Hill 
Thomas Couch 



Committee for 

West Parish 



Andrew Burr 
Samuel Rowland 
Samuel Burr 
Ebenezer Silliman 
Thaddeus Burr 



1 Committee for ye 
Prime Society 



So the Greenfield society in due course of time received 
its share of the parsonage money and voted to put it out 
at as high a rate of interest as possible "taking special 
care to secure well ye whole of ye principal." The one 
appointed to care for the fund each year was paid for his 
services. 

The first mention of a janitor is at a meeting held 
December 16, 1735, when James Burr is voted one pound 
for sweeping and taking care of the meeting-house. 

During the next sixteen years Rev. John Goodsell's 
salary appears to be increased every year, largely due in 
all probability to the depreciation of currency. Starting in 
1725 with a salary of 100 pounds per annum, it was 
increased to 125 pounds in 1730; 150 pounds in 1736; 170 
pounds in 1737; 200 pounds in 1739; 350 pounds in 1743; 



24 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

550 pounds in 1747; 600 pounds in 1748; 700 pounds in 
1750; 800 pounds in 1750. These figures all evidently 
refer to the "old tenor" paper certificates issued by the 
colonial government, and which appear to have been con- 
stantly changing in value. The parish furnished its pastor 
fire-wood each year also. 

On December 13, 1736, the parish voted that there shall 
be a pew built on each side of the pulpit, at the committee's 
discretion. The following year on December 14, 1737, 
Moses Dimon, Jr., was appointed a committee to lay out 
what money was raised for the meeting-house ; and Samuel 
Wakeman, Moses Dimon, Jr., and Joseph Banks, a com- 
mittee to regulate the pewing of the meeting-house, they 
to lay out every man his place according to what he has 
paid toward building the meeting-house. On January 15, 
1740, it was voted that there shall be four or more braces 
put in the meeting-house; and that Daniel Bradley, Benj. 
Gilbert and Benj. Banks shall be added to the committee 
for pewing the meeting-house. In December, 1741, it was 
voted to spend some money in mending the glass of the 
meeting-house. On March 24, 1743, voted "that the meet- 
ing-house shall be finished so far as to lath and plaster 
under the upper floor, and under the gallery floor" ; voted, 
"to lay the gallery floor and to make one seat around the 
gallery, and two flights of stairs to lead up to the gallery." 
On September 8 of the same year, the parish voted "that 
those persons who have paid the most toward the building 
of the meeting-house, shall have pews laid out to them 
according to what they have paid, and that every man 
who has a pew laid out shall be at the charge of building 
the same; and if any person refuses to build the pew laid 
out to him, the next in order according to what he has paid 
shall have ye pew, and so on." 

The following is the report of the committee appointed 
to number and assign the pews : 



Rev. John Goodsell, 17 26-1 756 



25 



"Whereas we, ye subscribers hereunto were by ye parish of Green- 
field at their meeting held in said parish Sept. 15, 1743, appointed a 
committee to repair to ye meeting-house in said parish and there take 
a view and number all ye pews already built, three only excepted, 
viz : one on each side ye pulpit and ye pew given to Mr. Goodsell, 
and value ye places whereon they stand, with full power to dispose 
of said pews to such persons of said society and their heirs forever, 
as we in our discretion shall think reasonable and just, provided 
said persons to whom they are disposed to, do immediately pay to 
ye committee the whole cost and charge that said committee hath 
been at in building said pews, and also pay to said society ye value 
that we should set on said places whereon said pews stand, or give 
good security for ye payment of ye same at ye time in said vote 
expressed ; 

Now know ye that we did on ye 22nd day of September 1743, 
repair to said meeting-house, view said pews and number ye same 
and have set a value upon each pew, and by virtue of ye authority 
given as aforesaid, we do by these presents grant, dispose and 
make over unto ye several persons hereafter named and to their 
heirs forever ye pews annexed to each of their names, to hold ye 
same according to ye tenour of said vote, they being ye persons 
that we, according to our best discretion, judge most reasonable to 
have them, (and they having already fulfilled ye condition of said 
vote) viz :" 

To Joseph Wheeler 

" Benjamin Banks 

" Moses Dimon 

" Nathaniel Hull 

" Daniel Bradley 

" Benjamin Gilbert 

" ye Heirs of John Thorp 

" Joseph Banks 

" Samuel Wakeman 

" Daniel Burr 

" John Gilbert 

" Samuel Bradley 

" Benjamin Sherwood 

" ye Heirs of Eliphalet Hull 

" Joseph Hill 

" Jabez Wakeman 

" David Williams 

" Lemuel Price 



ye pew No. 1 


a u u 2 


« u u 3 


" " " 4 

" " " 5 
" " " 6 


" " " 7 
" " " 8 


" " " 9 
" " " 10 


" " "11 
" " " 12 


" " " 13 


« « « 14 


" " " 15 
" " " 16 


" " " 17 

" " " 18 



26 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

In confirmation whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals 
this 22nd day of Sept. 1743. 

Signed and sealed Andrew Burr seal 

in presence of: Samuel Burr seal 

Alexander Green Joseph Wakeman seal 
Gershom Banks 

The meeting-house now, fifteen years after its erection, 
is fully completed. The building is in good repair and the 
interior, since the completion of pews and gallery, is quite 
in keeping with others of its day. So for the next thirteen 
years it serves the parish without repairs or alterations. 

For nine years, 1743 to 1752, there is not an event in the 
parish outside of the ordinary. But the summer of 1752 
marks the beginning of a long illness of the pastor, Rev. 
Mr. Goodsell. On June 22, 1752, it was voted to hire 
some person to supply the pulpit for Mr. Goodsell "under 
his difficulties." Samuel Bradley was appointed the supply 
committee, with the privilege of borrowing money if 
needed. Later in the year, a committee consisting of Capt. 
Moses Dimon, Capt. Daniel Bradley, and Lieut. John 
Jennings were appointed "to apply to ye council for advice 
regarding Mr. Goodsell's illness." 

June 7, 1753, it was voted "that next Thursday be 
appointed by the inhabitants of the parish of Greenfield 
to be set apart as a day of fasting and prayer." The record 
does not state whether this fast day was observed on 
account of the pastor's illness, or to pray for a bountiful 
harvest, or because threatened with a drought, blight, 
destructive insects, or for some other purpose. Days of 
fasting and prayer are said to have been common in those 
times, but this is the only one on record in Greenfield. 

In the historical discourse of Pastor H. B. Smith, deliv- 
ered in 1876, it is stated that Mr. Samuel Bradley was 
appointed to get a bell for the Greenfield meeting-house. 
This is an error. The records clearly show that on Novem- 



Rev. John Goodsell, if 26-1 756 27 

ber 30, 1752, Mr. Bradley was appointed to get a pall for 
Greenfield, and 'that said pall shall be lodged at ye min- 
ister's house." The custom of having a pall for use on 
funeral occasions was common 150 years ago in many 
parishes of New England. 

By the year 1754, Mr. Goodsell's infirmities had assumed 
such a form that the question arose as to whether he was 
capable, on account of the condition "of his body and mind 
to perform ye work of ye ministry." The members of the 
parish were- in sore straits as to what course they should 
pursue. Mr. Goodsell's mental afflictions had rendered 
him somewhat childish; his usual good judgment and tact 
seemed to have gone. Time and again the society con- 
sidered his case, and agreed by a large majority that he 
should be relieved from his pastoral charge. By the spring 
of 1756 both the parish and church had voted to call the 
consociation at once "to consider and determine what is 
proper to be done in our present difficult circumstances 
with respect to Mr. Goodsell's indisposition of body and 
mind." 

So the pastoral relation was dissolved on the 20th day 
of April, 1756, but the parish in its contract with Mr. 
Goodsell in 1725 had agreed that if ever through age or 
other inability he should be unable to perform the work 
of the ministry, then they should give him an honorable 
support or maintenance, and this indeed was a stumbling- 
block. Te begin with it was a most unwise agreement for 
any society under any circumstances, and now to make 
some kind of a settlement with a man who had lost his 
mental poise, was no easy matter. The society did not 
know how much they owed Mr. Goodsell ; the value of 
money had changed in the past thirty years, and of course 
Mr. Goodsell, in such a condition, was unreasonable in 
his demands. The society met and voted him this sum and 
then that sum; finally the idea was suggested of leaving 



28 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

the affair in the hands of arbitrators to settle; but "Mr. 
Goodsell utterly refuseth to leave ye affair to judicious men 
to decide, or to settle it in any other method consistent with 
reason and justice." Then again a few months later, the 
committee reports, "that Mr. Goodsell is so wavering in 
his mind that they can by no means prevail with him to 
settle ye affair in any just and reasonable way whatever." 
So the business relations between pastor and parish, which 
at one time narrowly escaped being brought before the 
General Assembly, were not satisfactorily settled until May, 
1757, when Mr. Goodsell gave the following release and 
receipt : 

'To all people to whom these presents shall come, greeting: 
Know ye that whereas I, John Goodsell, of ye town and county of 
Fairfield in ye colony of Connecticut, did covenant and agree with 
ye Northwest Society in said Fairfield, called Greenfield Society, to 
officiate in ye work of ye ministry in said society, and ye said society, 
by their committee, did for and in behalf of said society, covenant 
and agree with me, ye said John Goodsell, to pay me for my work 
in ye ministry there, ye sum of one hundred pounds of current bills 
of credit of this colony for my yearly salary, so long as I should 
continue in ye work of ye ministry in said society, and also an 
honorable support or maintenance afterwards when I should, by age 
or other inability, be rendered unable to officiate in ye work of ye 
ministry in said society, provided I, the said John Goodsell should 
not neglect ye said work of ye ministry through my own default, 
all of which may appear by one certain writing or covenant made 
between me and the said society bearing date Nov. 1, 1725. 

And whereas I, ye said John Goodsell, after having a considerable 
time officiated in ye work of ye ministry in said society, was ren- 
dered unable, not by my own default, but through ye providence of 
God, to officiate any further in ye work of ye ministry, in said 
society, and whereas, I, ye said John Goodsell, have by reason of 
said inability been duly dismissed and discharged from ye work and 
service of ye ministry in said society, and as there has been a con- 
siderable difficulty and trouble subsisting between me and ye society, 
about and respecting some arrearages of salary and ye support or 
maintenance in said writing or agreement contained and mentioned 
as aforesaid, and whereas ye society, to prevent any further diffi- 



Rev. John Goodsell, 1/26-1756 29 

culty, touching said arrearages of salary and said future maintenance 
or support, hath agreed and voted to give me ye sum of two hundred 
and eighty pounds lawful money, in full for such arrearages, and 
for such maintenance or support, and I, ye said John Goodsell, for 
promoting of peace in said society and to prevent any further diffi- 
culty therein on account of such arrearages or maintenance, and 
wholly to free said society from ye burden thereof for ye future, 
have agreed to accept ye said sum of two hundred and eighty pounds 
in full of all such arrearages and maintenance, and in full satisfac- 
tion and discharge of said writing or covenant, or ye duty therein 
contained, or that thereby might accrue. 

Now know ye that I, ye said John Goodsell, do hereby acknowl- 
edge that I have received of and from ye said society ye said sum 
of two hundred and eighty pounds lawful money in full satisfaction 
of ye said arrearages and maintenance, and ye duties contained in 
said writing, and in consideration thereof, I do hereby freely, fully, 
and absolutely free, acquit and discharge ye said society and ye 
inhabitants thereof, from said writing and ye covenants therein 
contained, and from all demands of any arrearages of my salary, 
or any other dues or duties that are contained in or may arise from 
said writing or agreement on account of such arrearages or main- 
tenance. 

In witness whereof, I, ye said John Goodsell, have hereunto set my 
hand and seal in Fairfield this 10th day of May 1757." 

John Goodsell seal 
Signed, sealed and delivered 
in the presence of : 

Noah Hobart 
David Rowland 
David Burr, Jr. 

Mr. Goodsell at this time, was not an old man; he had 
not even reached the fifty-year mark. But thirty years 
of persevering, faithful service in a new parish had 
affected not only his bodily vigor, but had also proven dis- 
astrous to his nerves. He was not a delicate man, but 
close application to the work he so much loved had made 
him grow old long before his time. If he had not been 
naturally rugged as a young man, he could not have ridden 



30 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

on horseback to New York to purchase himself a pair of 
gloves, and return the same day. Yet his descendants tell 
us that he easily accomplished such a feat. 

It is noticeable that all through his long pastorate of 
thirty years, there is not a record anywhere of ever a 
murmur or complaint against him, from the day he moved 
into the parish, until his health failed him and both body 
and mind began to yield to the attacks of disease. His 
ministry was the longest of any pastor, and during that 
time 212 persons united with the church by profession and 
256 took the so-called half-way covenant. 

We are proud of Rev. John Goodsell to-day, for his 
record is a clean one. During his earlier years, not much 
more than a boy-preacher, yet how well he shepherded his 
flock. He lived to see the society develop from a weak, 
unorganized body into a strong and thoroughly organized 
church with a respectable house of worship. It is said 
that "he preached on the Sabbath and on lecture days, 
prepared young men for college, gave medical advice as 
a doctor, legal counsel as a lawyer, and labored in his fields 
as a farmer." 

His own home was located at the rear or northwest of 
the present church green, on what is now the Nichols 
estate, but his house was probably pulled down or destroyed 
a century or more ago. Here he raised up a large family 
of sons and daughters. Their names and years of 
birth, including three who died in infancy, are as follows: 
Hannah, 1726; Mary, 1727; John, 1730; Thomas, 1731 ; 
Sarah, 1734; Epaphras, 1735; Abigail, 1737; Huldah, 
1740; Epaphras, 1742; Lewis, Phoebe, twins, 1744; Samuel, 
1746; James, 1748; James, 1749. From this large family 
have sprung dozens of the families of Greenfield and 
vicinity, there being perhaps several hundred descendants 
who can point with pride to their noble ancestor. One son, 
Lewis, in 1772 built a house which was used as a tavern 




3 * 

5 o 



Rev. John Goodsell, 1726-17 56 31 

both before and after the Revolutionary War, and it became 
quite famous in its day. It was the building that many of 
us remember as the old Col. A. R. T. Nichols house; it 
still stands as shown in the picture. 

Here in Greenfield Mr. Goodsell passed his last years, 
within the shadow of the new church, erected soon after 
he resigned his long pastorate. We can think of him 
during those last seven years, feeble in health but patient 
in his suffering, living a quiet and retired life in his own 
home, and among his own people who had been so dear 
to him. It is on record that in November, 1761, the parish 
voted "to give Mr. Goodsell the chips lying around the 
new meeting-house." 

Mr. Goodsell died December 26, 1763, aged 57 years 
and 5 days, and was buried in the Greenfield Cemetery. 
His stone, which is of slate, is well preserved and may 
be seen to-day not far from the street near the upper 
entrance. It is inscribed thus : 

HERE LIES BURIED THE BODY 
OF THE REV. MR. 
JOHN GOODSELL 
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 
DEC. 26TH I763 
AGED 57 YEARS. 



CHAPTER III. 
Rev. Seth Pomeroy, i 757-1 770. 

ABOUT the time that the Rev. John Goodsell retired 
from the pastorate of the church, some families in 
the northeastern section of the town of Fairfield had peti- 
tioned the General Assembly for parish privileges of their 
own. As seemed to be the custom in those days, the Green- 
field society strongly opposed the formation of another 
parish, and the loss of some valuable supporters, and sent 
Capt. Daniel Bradley as agent to Hartford in May, 1756, 
to present arguments. Again in October, of the same 
year, parish privileges were sought through the General 
Assembly holden at New Haven, by families living in the 
northwestern part of the town, and again Capt. Bradley 
was sent to oppose this petition. But in each case new 
societies were formed, and the year 1757 marks the begin- 
ning of the Baptist church and society of Stratfield, and 
also the Congregational church and society of Norfield, 
now in the town of Weston. 

During the year 1756 the parish votes to make some 
repairs on the meeting-house, and a committee is appointed 
to look over the building and report. They then vote 
December 23, 1756, "to cover ye whole of ye meeting- 
house excepting ye north roof, and two gable ends." 

We do not know who assisted Rev. Mr. Goodsell during 
his last year as pastor at Greenfield, or who supplied the 
pulpit during the spring and summer of 1756, but we read 
that on August 11, 1756, the society votes "to send for 
Rev. Mr. Barritt, a resident of New Fairfield to come and 
preach among us on probation." The following year, May 
3°> !757> a vote is taken "whether the society is willing 



Rev. Seth Pomeroy, 1757-1770 33 

Mr. Jonathan Elmer be recommended to the association to 
preach the Gospel among us as a probationer." Voted in 
the affirmative, 71 to 9. Again a little later, put to vote 
"whether we will send for Mr. Jonathan Elmer to preach 
with us for three months." Voted in the negative. 

So the church is without a pastor until September 2, 
1757, when the society votes unanimously to have Rev. 
Seth Pomeroy come as a probationer, and the following 
month a committee is appointed to consult with him in 
regard to a call and to decide on the terms. The following 
is the proposal to Mr. Pomeroy : 

"Oct. 14, 1757. A committee consisting of Moses Dimon, Daniel 
Bradley, John Gilbert, Joseph Bradley Jr. and Daniel Sherwood, met 
and suggested the following proposal in regard to Rev. Seth 
Pomeroy, which was adopted : For his settlement we propose to give 
him one hundred pounds lawful money, including a piece of land 
lying and being near ye meeting-house, in quantity about one acre 
and a quarter, commonly called school land ; ye value of said piece 
of land as ye society gave for it is to be deducted from ye aforesaid 
hundred pounds ; ye remainder to be paid Mr. Pomeroy in cash by 
ye first day of Nov. 1758; and also ye use and improvement of 
about six acres of land lying and being near Moses Dimon Esq. 
also called school land, as long as said Mr. Pomeroy continues our 
minister and no longer; ye other fore-mentioned piece of an acre 
and a quarter of land Mr. Pomeroy is to have conveyed to him 
forever as his own proper estate. 

Secondly, for his salary we propose to give him seventy-five 
pounds a year for ye first two years, and after that to give him 
eighty-five pounds a year for his stated salary so long as he con- 
tinues our minister." 

The above offer was extended to Mr. Pomeroy and his 
reply follows : 

"To ye Society of Greenfield now convened this first day of 
November, 1757, 
Gentlemen : 

Whereas your committee have reported to me your call for 
my settling in ye gospel ministry among you, and for encouragement 

3 



34 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

that you have voted for a settlement one hundred pounds lawful 
money, including one acre and a quarter of land to be given forever, 
and also ye use and improvement of about six acres more of land 
during my ministry here, and for a salary to give seventy-five pounds 
a year for ye first two years, and then eighty-five pounds yearly, so 
long as I continue to be your minister ; 

I do therefore now, declare my acceptance of your invitation and 
of ye abovesaid proposals, and although I am sensible that ye set- 
tlement offered is so low that it must fall considerably short of a 
sufficiency for building, and comfortably settling, yet as Providence 
seems to point out ye way of duty so clearly, I dare not refuse to 
comply; but depending on God's blessing and your assistance and 
kindness, am willing to serve you in ye work of ye ministry as soon 
as I can be conveniently introduced." 

Seth Pomeroy. 

The acre and one-quarter of land referred to above is 
the property now owned by Wm. H. Banks, at the lower 
end of the common. It was called school land or parish 
land and had been purchased of the town in 1755 for 21 
pounds. The other property referred to above containing 
six acres and also called school or parish land was the 
central field on the north side of the road leading westward 
from the Country Club House corner, now the property of 
Mrs. Lloyd Griscom. 

This lot was for a long time devoted to the use of the 
resident minister of the church, but in later years was 
turned over to the "School Society." It was sold at public 
auction July 2, 1853, by vote of the Greenfield or "Second 
School Society," and by authority of the legislature, 
through the following committee: Samuel Betts, John 
Burr and Henry Bradley. The price received was $487.82, 
the purchaser being Frederic Bronson of New York. This 
sum was used in defraying the expenses of building the 
new academy erected the same year. 

Rev. Seth Pomeroy was ordained on December 8, 1757. 
The services of ordination were: introductory prayer by 



Rev. Seth Pomeroy, 17 57-1770 35 

Rev. Samuel Sherwood; sermon by Rev. Noah Wells; 
ordaining prayer by Rev. Moses Dickinson ; charge to the 
pastor by Rev. Noah Hobart; right hand of fellowship 
by Rev. Daniel Buckingham; concluding prayer by Rev. 
Jonathan Ingalls. 

Mr. Pomeroy was born in Northampton, December 14, 
1732, graduated at Yale College, 1753, and remained one 
year after graduation in New Haven as a Berkeley scholar, 
a favor granted on account of his superior scholarship. 
He was a tutor in Yale College during the years 1756 and 
1757. His wife was the daughter of Jonathan Law, gov- 
ernor of Connecticut, and they had one son, Jonathan Law 
Pomeroy, who later became a clergyman, and was for 
some years pastor of the Congregational Church at Worth- 
ington, Mass. 

At the time of his ordination Mr. Pomeroy was 25 years 
of age. Soon after his settlement in Greenfield he built 
the high, gambrel-roofed house with dormer windows, 
which is still well preserved and is now the residence of 
William H. Banks. This was the first fine house ever 
built in Greenfield. Previous to this time the best houses 
were built with the familiar long roof on the rear and a 
short roof in front. 

Mr. Pomeroy had been pastor but a short time when 
the society decided to build a new meeting-house. The 
old meeting-house had been in use scarcely thirty-three 
years, yet it was becoming dilapidated, and out of date. 
Its shape was like that of the common country school- 
house, perfectly plain; there was no steeple and no place 
for a bell. A young and active preacher and a parish of 
loyal and prosperous people demanded a more up-to-date 
house of worship. 

So on February 4, 1760, it was voted "that a new meet- 
ing-house be built; that it shall stand on the Place of 
Parade, where now stands a monument of stones, and that 



36 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

Samuel Bradley Jr. shall be a committee to apply to the 
county court in behalf of the parish, to affix and establish 
the place on which it shall stand." A few weeks later 
it was decided that "the dimensions of the building shall 
be 60 by 42 feet, with a well-proportioned and well-built 
steeple; that Samuel Bradley Jr. and Moses Dimon Esq. 
shall be the committee for building said new meeting- 
house." 

The report of the court's doings in affixing the place 
on which the meeting-house should stand was read at the 
meeting February 25, 1760, and then the work began. 
The site for the new meeting-house being quite a distance 
from the old house of worship, made it very convenient 
to use the old building until the new one was completed. 
In fact the old structure was not ordered pulled down till 
October 28, 1762, when Joseph Hill and Daniel Sherwood 
were appointed to have charge of the removal of the build- 
ing, being instructed to parcel it out and sell at public 
vendue to the highest bidders. 

The raising of the funds for a new meeting-house of 
such liberal proportions and with such an elaborate steeple, 
was no small matter. During the year 1760, nine pence on 
the pound was levied for the carrying on of the work; 
six pence the next year, and ten pence the year following, 
all to be laid out on the new meeting-house. Before the 
close of the year 1761, the new building was sufficiently 
advanced for the laying out of pews. The society voted, 
November 10, 1761, "to lay out as many pews as can with 
convenience be laid out on ye ground floor by a joiner 
that understands the business; that the spots or places 
so laid out be fairly sold at vendue to ye highest bidder, 
and ye money used to defray charges of building said 
house; that no person shall be allowed to purchase more 
than one pew for a family; that no person who doth not 
belong to this society or who is of another persuasion, shall 




SECOND MEETING-HOUSE, I/62-1845. 



Rev. Seth Pomeroy, 17 57-1770 37 

be allowed to bid at said vendue ; that those who purchase 
the spots or places for ye purpose aforesaid, be obliged to 
build their pews by a limited time and to build them all 
alike; that ye spots or places and pews so built and pur- 
chased shall never be sold or conveyed to any person who 
doth not belong to this society, or to anyone of another 
persuasion; that one spot or place shall be reserved for 
ye society to build a pew on." 

The following is the report of the committee appointed 
to sell the spots or places for pews : 

"Greenfield, Dec. 2, 1761. 

We, the subscribers, being appointed by this society at their 
meeting of ye 10th of November last to sell the spots or places, 
then voted to be laid out in our new meeting-house for pews to 
be erected on, have according to ye vote of said society at their 
abovesaid meeting relating to said pews, laid out and sold the above- 
said spots or places for pews, in the manner following, viz : 

"With the assistance of David Bradley, joiner, beginning at ye 
east side of ye south double door, have laid out ye spot or place for 
Pew No. 1, and so successively laid out and numbered said spots all 
around the house, till we come to ye west side of said double door, 
they being in number twenty-six; and have also this day sold ye 
above spots or places, except number 15, for the purpose aforesaid, 
to ye following persons at public vendue, with ye sum each spot or 
place sold for, annexed to his name, which persons are all obliged 
by ye conditions of said vendue, to have their pews well built and 
completed upon their own cost and charge by the first day of October 
next or forfeit their spots or places to ye society. 

Sold as followeth: 
To Gershom Banks the spot or place No. 1 for 14 pounds, 15 shillings 
Samuel Bradley ditto 

Jedediah Hull 
Daniel Sherwood 
Joseph Hill 
Cornelius Hull 
Daniel Sturges " 

Moses Wakeman 



2 " 


16 


' 10 


3 " 


20 


7 


4 " 


19 


2 


5 " 


20 


7 


6 " 


17 


3 


7 " 


10 


' 


8 " 


15 


' 



38 



Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 



To David Bradley the spot 

" Gershom Hubbell 

" Gershom Bulkley 

" Jonathan Dimon 

" John Jennings 2nd 

" Gershom Bradley 

" Reserved for the Society 

" Nehemiah Banks 

" Ebenezer Banks 

" Joseph Bradley Jr. 

" John Banks 

" Samuel Whitney 

" David Williams 

" Benj. Sherwood 

" Hezekiah Bradley 

" Samuel Bradley Jr. 

" David Banks 

" Daniel Bradley 



or place No. 9 for 24 pounds, shillings 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 

17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 



26 ' 


12 


23 ' 


IS 


23 


I 


20 ' 


7 


20 


3 


24 ' 





20 ' 


10 


27 





17 * 





15 


4 


15 





17 " 


14 


19 " 


11 


23 ' 


1 


20 


5 


19 ' 


5 



Total 489 



12 



Joseph Bradley J«. I Committee „ 
David Banks ) 

Soon after the sale of the pews on the ground floor, the 
society voted to lay out pews in the gallery in the same 
manner, and sell under the same restrictions. About this 
time, December, 1761, Nehemiah Banks and David Wil- 
liams were appointed to look into the expenditures already 
made on the building and report how much more would 
be needed. This committee looked over all the accounts 
and in January, 1762, reported all satisfactory "except 
ye boarding of ye joyners, which in our opinion is charged 
higher than ye common price, and what we think reason- 
able; and likewise ye wages of David Bradley's two 
youngest boys, and ye hinges made by Lieut. Jennings, we 
think is too high. Ye cost already arisen we find to be 990 
pounds. According to our best understanding, one-half 
of ye ten penny rate made in November last to complete 
said house may be abated." 



Rev. Seth Pomeroy, 1757-1770 39 

The records imply that the builder of this meeting-house 
was David Bradley, with the assistance of his sons and 
other "joyners." 

This meeting-house, which stood for over 80 years, and 
in which so many of Greenfield's pastors have preached, 
is the most interesting one ever built by our society. The 
older residents of Greenfield remember it well, as it was 
not pulled down till 1845. It stood on practically the same 
site as the present church, except that it extended east and 
west, with the steeple on the east end, and the main entrance 
with double doors in the middle of the south side. There 
was also a door on the west and two on the east. No 
chimney was ever constructed in this meeting-house. 

For many years stoves in meeting-houses were con- 
sidered sacrilegious. In winter piety was supposed to 
overcome all disadvantages; the women used footstoves, 
but the men calmly endured the frigid atmosphere which 
was thought to be so conducive to the worship of the 
Lord. Nearly eighty years later, and not long before the 
building was pulled down, a wood-stove in which sticks 
of considerable length could be burned, was purchased and 
set up, the stove-pipe protruding through the window-sash ; 
and we may suppose that then, even before the fires were 
started, the warmth was almost unendurable, so great 
were the imaginations of the dear fathers and mothers of 
ye olden time. 

The pulpit was on the north side, directly opposite the 
main entrance. Over this pulpit was suspended by an iron 
rod, at just the proper angle, a huge sounding-board, which 
was supposed to improve the acoustic properties of the 
building. This contrivance was just a conical, hollow, 
umbrella-like arrangement something like an extinguisher, 
that looked as though it might drop down at any moment 
and envelop the preacher. The pews were little square 
rooms, and as the various families went in and closed the 



40 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

doors behind them, then, even though the preaching might 
not always have been interesting, there was always the 
sweet satisfaction, as they sat for some two hours on the 
cushionless, high-backed benches, that they actually owned 
the spot or place where they were sitting. 

The steeple was unusually high for a country meeting- 
house, and many visitors each year had ascended the long 
flights of stairs to the floor above the belfry, and then 
stepped outside to enjoy the view towards the east, south 
and west. It is supposed that on this elevated platform 
or "walk," as it was called, Timothy Dwight was inspired 
to write his beautiful pastoral poem "Greenfield Hill." 
Barber's "Connecticut Historical Collections," printed in 
1836, refers to the view from this meeting-house as 
follows: "This place (Greenfield) is most justly cele- 
brated for the prospect which is obtained from the belfry 
of the church. No other spot in Connecticut can show 
such a commanding, extensive, and beautiful prospect. 
Seventeen churches can be seen, viz : two in Fairfield, 
three in Bridgeport, two in Stratford, two in Milford, 
two on Long Island, and one in each of the following 
places: New Canaan, Redding, Norfield, Green's Farms, 
Southport, and Canaan. Five lighthouses are also seen 
from this place, viz: one on Norwalk Island, Eaton's 
Neck, Black Rock, Stratford Point, and New Pasture 
Light. In a clear day, the East Rock near New Haven is 
distinctly seen." 

The building of this much-admired house of worship 
was one of the most important events during the pastorate 
of Rev. Seth Pomeroy. 

It is a matter of interest to note the various parish 
officers appointed at the annual parish meetings during 
these years. A school committee of one or more was 
always chosen for each district, and from one to three 
of the following: selectmen, surveyors of highways, fence- 











■ 


h^ 


BI^H -^^W \^^^^^ Mr-* ^&l\\j 


«•' ■ »« 


•Jfrr 1 ™! I* \i 




Ej^i-*3^ 




§ j 



Rev. Seth Pomeroy, 1 757-177° 4* 

viewers, grand- jurymen, tything-men, listers, collectors, 
constables, haywards, pound-keepers, branders of horses 
and leather-sealers. 

In 1763, a large number of families left the Greenfield 
church and society and formed the Congregational Church 
in Weston, now Easton. For several years the formation 
of this new parish had been before the General Assembly, 
but at each hearing, Greenfield had sent agents to oppose 
such a division. We find the names of Joseph Bradley, Jr., 
and John Bradley mentioned as the agents sent to the 
General Assembly for this purpose. 

During Mr. Pomeroy's ministry, two valuable silver tank- 
ards, which are still in use, were given to the church. One 
is inscribed, "This, the gift of Thomas Hill, Esq., to the 
Church of Christ in Greenfield, A. D. 1764." The other, 
"This, the gift of Samuel Bradley to the Church of Christ 
in Greenfield, A. D. 1768." 

This most successful and harmonious pastorate of less 
than thirteen years came to an abrupt ending on July 1, 
1770, when Mr. Pomeroy died, while still a young man 
of 37, in the midst of his usefulness. His grave is in the 
Greenfield cemetery, not far from Rev. John Goodsell's, 
and is also marked by a stone of slate. Rev. Mr. Pomeroy 
was a learned man, a most excellent and faithful preacher 
and was beloved by all his people. 



CHAPTER IV. 
Rev. William M. Tennant, 1772-1781. 

SOON after the death of Mr. Pomeroy, the pulpit was 
supplied by Rev. Mr. Starn or Stearn, who was also a 
candidate, but when a vote was taken, in February, 1771, 
with the idea of extending a call to him, there were 51 
for him and 44 against. So he was not called but was 
asked to supply the pulpit until August 14, 177 1. On the 
latter date it was voted to ask Rev. Wm. M. Tennant to 
preach on probation, but not till May 20, 1772, did the 
parish. vote to invite him to settle as their pastor, by a 
''great majority of 83 votes." The size of these parish 
meetings, when as high as 83 and even 95 voters were 
present to transact business, makes us to-day open our 
eyes in surprise. Very few of us have ever attended a 
parish meeting of such proportions. 

The following is the proposal to Mr. Tennant : 

"Mr. Tennant is to take ye care and charge of this church and 
congregation, and to settle on the same plan that ye ministers gener- 
ally settle in this western district of Fairfield County; and the com- 
mittee, in behalf of ye society, have agreed that Mr. Tennant's salary 
be one hundred pounds lawful money yearly, and one hundred 
pounds settlement ; and the use and improvement of about six acres 
of land called ye school land; said improvement and salary to 
continue so long as Mr. Tennant continues our minister in this 
place and no longer." 

Mr. Tennant's acceptance follows: 

"To the Society of Greenfield this 28th day of May 1772, Gentle- 
men : 

Whereas, your respectable committee met me according to appoint- 
ment and reported that you had unanimously given me a call to 
settle with you in the work of the gospel ministry and that for my 



Rev. William M. Tennant, 1772-1781 43 

encouragement hereto you had voted me a settlement of one hundred 
pounds lawful money to be my property for ever, and one hundred 
pounds like money for my yearly salary to be paid year by year 
as long as I continue your minister; granting me moreover ye full 
and entire use of a certain parsonage lot containing about six acres 
for ye same term and time. Humbly trusting from many divers 
circumstances that it is the will of God that I should take the 
oversight of you and become your pastor, I do therefore now declare 
my hearty and cheerful acceptance of your call and honorable pro- 
posals and shall endeavor to serve you as soon as I am regularly 
introduced by ordination; depending at ye same time upon your 
friendship, although you do not choose to be under any legal obliga- 
tion with respect to this particular, — to supply me with fire-wood 
from year to year, according to your former custom towards my 
predecessors ; and especially desiring your prayers to almighty God 
that I may be improved as a blessing among you." 

William M. Tennant. 

The Society voted Mr. Tennant 20 pounds for the 
expense of his journey, and appointed the 17th of June 
as the time for ordination. The services of the ordination 
were: Introductory prayer by Rev. Samuel Camp, sermon 
by Rev. Samuel Sherwood, ordaining prayer by Rev. Noah 
Hobart, charge to pastor by Rev. Moses Dickinson, right 
hand of fellowship by Rev. Noah Wells, concluding prayer 
by Rev. Jonathan Ingalls. 

This, the third pastor of the Greenfield church, was the 
son of Rev. Charles Tennant of White Clay Creek, Dela- 
ware, who was the younger brother of the more famous 
preachers, Revs. Wm. and Gilbert Tennant. He grad- 
uated at the College of New Jersey in 1763, received the 
degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1773 from Yale College, 
and was moderator of the General Assembly in 1777. His 
wife was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. John Rogers of 
New York City. 

During the summer of 1772, a number of improvements 
were made on the meeting-house. The galleries were 



44 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

completed at an expense of 70 pounds, and were patterned 
after those of ye old society in Fairfield ; step-stones were 
purchased for the meeting-house doors, being shipped 
from New York "by freight," which must have meant 
by boat; and in 1775 the steeple was repaired, and both 
steeple and roof treated to a coat of paint. 

Mr. Tennant's services as pastor during those troubled 
years of the Revolution were appreciated by his people, 
for in 1777 they voted him 30 pounds as a gift, and some 
two years later they voted that his annual salary be 
increased 20 pounds as long as he should remain their 
pastor ; and that he be supplied with 40 loads of good wood 
yearly. 

We have handed down to us the following record, show- 
ing the generosity of the society: 

"Whereas the war has greatly enhanced the price of all the neces- 
saries of life to that degree that it is impracticable for Mr. Tennant, 
our pastor, to support himself and family on the nominal sum we 
covenanted and agreed to pay him for his yearly salary; and, 
whereas, in our opinions the enlarging of Mr. Tennant's salary by 
a public vote might not only have a tendency to depreciate the 
currency, but also be hereafter made a precedent of, when the 
currency shall come to a standard and provisions to the old 
price; for the above mentioned reasons we, the subscribers, hereby 
agree to pay to Daniel Sherwood, Jr., committee man appointed by 
this parish to get subscriptions for Mr. Tennant, what we have 
severally subscribed and annexed to our names, by the first day of 
March next, or the same pay and deliver unto Mr. Tennant by said 
time over and above the nominal sum we have agreed to pay to Mr. 
Tennant for his yearly salary, in order the better to support himself 
and family in the difficult and extraordinary times, as witness our 
hands in Greenfield, the 17th November, 1778:" 

"Daniel Sherwood, 1 & l / 2 bushels of wheat; Cornelius Hull, 4 
bushels of Indian corn; Eliphalet Hull, 4 bushels of corn; John 
Alvord, 1 pair of women's shoes; John Hull, 20 weight of butter; 
Jedediah Hull, 2 bushels of corn and one of wheat; Albert Sher- 
wood, 2 bushels of wheat; Joseph Straton, 6 bushels of wheat; 
John Straton, 1 bushel of wheat; Stephen Straton, 6 lbs. of flax; 



Rev. William M. Tennant, 1772-1781 45 

Seth Sherwood, 2 bushels of wheat; James Redfield, 15 lbs. of pork; 
Nehemiah Banks, 40 lbs. of pork; Oliver Middlebrooks, 1 bushel of 
corn; Ebenezer Banks, T / 2 bushel of Lisbon salt; Joseph Banks, 1 
barrel of cider; Eliphalet Banks, 1 barrel of cider." 

Money not being plentiful during the war, the parish 
voted, December 8, 1778, that a tax of three pence on the 
pound to defray parish charges, could, if desired, be 
paid in provision and produce at the price given: "pork 
30 shillings per hundred ; beef 25 sh. ; wheat 6 sh. per 
bu. ; corn 3 sh. ; oats 1 sh. 6 d. ; flax 6 d. ; butter 
1 sh. ; wool 2 sh. ; hogs lard 7 d. ; tallow 8 d. ; English 
hay 3 sh. per hundred ; cheese 6 d. ; those that don't 
choose to pay their rates in provision shall have liberty 
to pay in money at the price provision is at, at the time 
the rate is collected. " 

On the records for November 15, 1781, we find the fol- 
lowing interesting item: "Hezekiah Bradley is appointed 
to sweep and sand the meeting-house for one year and is 
to have 30 shillings for his trouble. 

After a pastorate of more than nine years, Rev. Mr. 
Tennant desired that the consociation might be -called to 
sever his connection with the Greenfield parish. The great 
majority of his people were much opposed to his leaving 
them, but the consociation saw fit to grant his request and 
so his connection was severed December, 1781. After leav- 
ing Greenfield, Mr. Tennant became pastor of a Presby- 
terian church in Abington, near Philadelphia, where he 
died in December, 1810. 

It is said of him that while located in Greenfield he 
was a most worthy minister and excellent pastor. During 
his ministry he had the confidence of his people to a 
remarkable degree, and kept them together during the war 
of the American Revolution, when many churches in the 
United States were scattered and left without a pastor in 
a low spiritual condition. Mr. Tennant was a man of 



46 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

great sweetness of temper, and politeness of manner, and 
distinguished for hospitality. 

Being connected by marriage with Dr. Rogers who built 
and occupied the Agnes Murray place, Mr. Tennant prob- 
ably made this house his home during his ministry in 
Greenfield. 



CHAPTER V. 
Rev. Timothy Dwight, 1783-1795. 

F*OR several months following the dismission of Rev. 
Mr. Tennant, the pulpit was supplied with candidates. 
August 28, 1782, Mr. Abram Baldwin of Greenfield was 
invited to preach during the coming winter, but as he did 
not accept, the society voted in October of the same year 
to send to New Haven and invite a Mr. Dwight "to preach 
with us." No doubt Rev. Timothy Dwight was one of 
the candidates who had supplied the pulpit during the 
previous months, and now he comes to supply the pulpit 
almost continually until he is formally called and settled 
as pastor. 

About this time we find on record this little interesting 
item. "Dec. 12, 1782. Voted to apply to town for a piece 
of the Place of Parade on which to build a parsonage. The 
following committee is appointed to apply to the town 
meeting: Gershom Hubbell Esq., David Williams, Capt. 
Ebenezer Hill, and Doctor Rogers." We must suppose 
that the request was not granted as the parsonage was not 
built, and the report of the town meeting does not even 
mention the matter. 

We find on record the following in regard to the offer 
extended to Rev. Mr. Dwight: "May 19, 1783. Voted 
unanimously by 62, to approve and make choice of Mr. 
Timothy Dwight to take the pastoral care and charge of 
this church and congregation ; to pay Mr. Dwight one hun- 
dred and fifty pounds for his annual salary so long as 
he shall continue our minister; to pay Mr. Dwight three 
hundred pounds for a settlement to be paid in three years, 
one hundred pounds a year; to give Mr. Dwight the 
use and improvement of about six acres of land belonging 



48 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

to the parish, known by the name of the school lot, for 
and during the time he shall continue our minister; to 
give Mr. Dwight forty loads, equal to twenty cords, of 
good wood annually, during the time he shall continue our 
minister." 

The following committee were appointed to present the 
doings of the meeting to Mr. Dwight: Dudley Baldwin, 
Dea. David Williams, George Burr, Esq., Nehemiah Banks, 
and Dr. David Rogers. 

Mr. Dwight replied thus : 

"Greenfield, July 20, 1783. 
To the Society of Greenfield, Gentlemen : — 

I have considered the unanimous invitation given me by the 
church and congregation of Greenfield to settle with them in the 
work of the Gospel Ministry, and the proposals they have made me 
for my support in that office. In answer to this invitation, I beg 
leave to observe that the unanimity and friendliness of the call are 
so agreeable, and the proposals so handsome that I esteem it my 
duty to accept of them; and do hereby give my cheerful consent to 
settle with this church and people on the plan, and according to the 
principles I have uniformly delivered to you, particularly in two 
sermons, the one from Acts 20:26 and 27; the other from the First 
to the Corinthians 7:14; and I desire your constant prayers to 
almighty God that I may be a blessing to you. 

Timothy Dwight/' 

The services of the ordination, held on November 5, 
1 7&3> were: introductory prayer by Rev. Justus Mitchell; 
sermon by Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D.D., uncle of Mr. 
Dwight and pastor of Whitehaven church in New Haven, 
and second son of the celebrated preacher of the same 
name; ordaining prayer by Rev. Andrew Elliott; charge 
to the pastor by Rev. Samuel Camp; right hand of fellow- 
ship by Rev. Isaac Lewis; concluding prayer by Rev. 
Jonathan Murdoch. 

The history of Timothy Dwight's early life is perhaps 
better known than that of any other of Greenfield's pastors, 



Rev. Timothy Dwight, 1783-1795 49 

because of the prominence that he attained later in life. 
He was grandson of the famous preacher, Jonathan 
Edwards, and son of Timothy and Mary Dwight. He was 
born at Northampton, May 14, 1752, entered Yale Col- 
lege at the age of thirteen, was graduated four years later, 
was a teacher in a New Haven grammar school for two 
years, then taught mathematics, rhetoric and oratory in 
the college for six years. In 1777 he was licensed to 
preach, and became a chaplain in the army where for 
several years he labored for the spiritual interests of the 
soldiers and became a friend of Washington. From 1778 
to 1783 he was not only army chaplain, but spent two 
terms in the Massachusetts legislature, and did some 
preaching, besides farming at the paternal home in North- 
ampton. 

On March 3, 1777, Mr. Dwight was married at the 
house of Pierpont Edwards, Esq., of New Haven, to Mary 
Woolsey, daughter of Benjamin Woolsey of Dosoris, Long 
Island. That same year as he was closing his services as 
tutor at Yale, it is said that the students drew up a peti- 
tion to have him made president, but his own interference 
prevented any further action. 

The salary paid at Greenfield, 150 pounds (equal to 
$500), 20 cords of wood, and use of a six-acre lot, besides 
the settlement of 300 pounds (equal to $1000), was said 
to have been the largest given in the state at that time; 
and this is not improbable as we remember that so many 
of the parishes had suffered severely during the long war 
which had just closed and that Greenfield was one of those 
that to a large extent had escaped from the destructive 
hand of the British. 

So Mr. and Mrs. Dwight with two small children moved 
to Greenfield in the fall of 1783, and the parish looked 
forward to a long-continued ministry and to his living and 



50 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

dying in the community. But this proved to be his first 
and only pastorate. 

The part of the agreement in regard to furnishing 20 
cords of wood yearly was carried out as shown by the fol- 
lowing vote: November 21, 1783; voted, "that the wood 
that is carted to Mr. Dwight shall be eight shillings a 
load; that it shall be carted next Wednesday; that they 
who do not cart on that day shall not have a right to cart 
any except they be called on by the committee ; that a 
committee shall take account of the wood and see if every 
load be half a cord." And a vote similar to the above was 
passed each year at the annual meeting in November or 
December. At one meeting it is stated that "nut wood 
shall be 9 shillings and oke 7 shillings per load." 

That the settlement of a new pastor in the parish brought 
a new enthusiasm is shown by the records of several meet- 
ings. In 1784, the parish votes "to paint the roof, doors, 
and windows of the meeting-house," and at a later meeting, 
to repair and paint the steeple, "applying continental cer- 
tificates for that purpose." 

Here comes in an interesting record in regard to the 
formation of the towns, Weston and Easton. On March 30, 
1786, it was voted unanimously, "that we are willing in 
future time to attend at ye usual place in ye first society 
in Fairfield to transact all public business proper to be done 
by said town, provided that said first society together with 
ye two parishes, Stratfield and Green's Farms, shall oppose 
the two parishes, Norfield and North Fairfield (Easton), 
being made a separate and different town." 

Up to this time, town meetings had occasionally been 
held at the Greenfield meeting-house, as we learn from 
such items as the following taken from the town records: 

"Fairfield, Dec. 14, 1785. Voted that this meeting be 
adjourned to Wednesday, Dec. 28th, at one of ye clock, 
afternoon, to the meeting-house in the parish of Greenfield." 



Rev. Timothy D wight, 1783-1795 51 

The first reference to a bell on the parish records is 
on July 24, 1793, when it is voted "to run the bell over, 
and to weigh 600 pounds after it is run ; and that Capt. 
David Hubbell be the committee to get it run." No doubt 
the above refers to the first bell ever owned by the parish, 
and perhaps purchased soon after the erection of the church 
in 1762. Again in 181 1, the parish votes to have the bell 
"new cast," probably due to a crack or some other defect. 
No doubt this bell was rung every evening at nine o'clock 
for many years. In fact the records state that on Novem- 
ber 22, 1804, the parish voted "that the committee shall 
hire some person to ring the bell evenings at nine o'clock 
as usual." 

The first reference to singing is also during Rev. Mr. 
Dwight's ministry, when on August 20, 1794, the parish 
votes to have the singing revised, and appoints the follow- 
ing committee to hire a singing master for three months 
if they think proper : Darius Grant, John Albert, Jonathan 
Banks, and Reuben Williams. In November of the same 
year, Capt. Abel Osborn, Buckingham Sherwood, Wake- 
man Lyon, Darius Grant, Capt. Josiah Whitney, Mr. Hale 
and Ralph Sherwood, are appointed "choristers to pitch 
Psalms." Either the days of music in churches were 
approaching, or else the parish was developing a musical 
taste under the influence of the pastor, who was himself 
a singer, hymn-writer and poet. The singers always sat 
in the gallery, which was very commodious and extended 
across the rear and both sides of the building. Perhaps 
not in Dwight's day, but years later in this old meeting- 
house, the large choir was assisted by several stringed 
instruments such as the bass viol and violin, and in time a 
small melodeon, not much more than three feet in length, 
was added. 

Rev. Mr. Dwight was ambitious. He wanted to do more 
than the ordinary work of a country pastor. Perhaps his 



52 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

salary was insufficient for his support; or perhaps his 
love of higher education led him to open a school in 
Gershom Hubbell's house in the large southeast room, 
that had been used by Mr. Hubbell as a leather shop. Here 
in this colonial house that is so well preserved after the 
lapse of more than a century, and which is now occupied 
by Mr. Arthur Hubbell, was started a school that after- 
wards became famous. In 1786, with the help of friends, 
a building long known as the Dwight Academy, was erected 
on the common where the present school-house now stands. 
Here Timothy Dwight labored for the cause of higher 
education. There was already the district school on the 
west end of the common, and there are those living to-day 
who remember attending the little district school, while 
older boys and girls studied the higher branches in the 
other building on the northeast corner of the green. 

Rev. Mr. Dwight devoted six hours a day to his work 
at the academy, and the institution soon became famous. 
Students flocked to it from many parts of the United 
States and Canada. Young ladies were given a place for 
Dwight believed in educating them also; in fact he was 
one of the first to encourage female education. There were 
Dr. Rogers' daughters, three Miss Burrs from Fairfield, 
Miss Young of Bridgeport, Sally Nichols from Newtown 
and many others; and among the young men were David 
Hill, Ezekiel Webb, Jonathan Pomeroy, Parson Bartlett, 
Lemuel Sanford of Redding, David Rogers, Abraham 
Davenport of Stamford, two Henry Livingstones from 
Poughkeepsie, James Anaram of Richmond, Debois from 
France, Joel R. Poinsett, afterwards minister to Mexico 
and secretary of war under Van Buren, Dexter of New- 
buryport, William Williams of Norwich, Charles Denison 
of New Haven, Hancock from North Carolina, Charles 
Hobby Pond of Milford, afterwards Lieutenant Governor 
of the state, Wilson and Philo Hubbell of Bridgeport, the 



Rev. Timothy Dwight, 1783-1795 53 

Capers from South Carolina, Henry Baldwin, afterwards 
justice of the United States Supreme Court, A. Tomlinson 
and many others. 

As far as the writer has been able to ascertain, the only 
person living to-day, whose father attended the Dwight 
Academy, while Timothy Dwight was in charge, is Mrs. 
Hetty J. Harrison of Greenfield Hill, now 92 years of 
age. Her father, Uriah Bulkley, who died in 1874 at the 
age of 92, often declared that he never forgot the instruc- 
tion received under Dr. Dwight, when he was a boy of 
12 or 13; and that Dr. Dwight was such a thorough 
disciplinarian that he always stood in great awe of him. 

It has been said that more than 1000 pupils were edu- 
cated in this academy, and that Rev. Mr. Dwight labored 
to have his highest class equal in scholarship to the stu- 
dents of Yale College; in fact students from Yale often 
came here to spend one year under Dwight. One student, 
William Jordan of North Carolina, died in Greenfield in 
1794 and was buried in the Greenfield cemetery, where his 
stone may be seen to-day. So the ordinarily quiet farm- 
ing community of Greenfield was enlivened by many merry 
voices of young men and young ladies during those years 
previous to 1795, and even for many years after Dwight's 
removal to New Haven, for the academy was continued by 
Rev. Jeremiah Day, D.D., who also became a president of 
Yale, and was afterwards continued by a number of other 
resident pastors and teachers of note. 

In 1836 and for a number of years it was used exclu- 
sively as a young ladies' seminary. The picture shows the 
building in its latter days in the early fifties just before 
being pulled down. The timbers of the academy were used 
by the late Uriah Perry in the construction of his barn, one 
mile north of Greenfield, and the vane taken from the 
top of the cupola, is still in the Perry family where it is 
prized as a curiosity. 



54 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

In 1794 Rev. Dr. Dwight received and declined a call 
to become pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church at Albany. 

There are but few recorded incidents of the career of 
Dr. Dwight while located in Greenfield, owing perhaps to 
a permanent weakness of his eyes. His sermons were 
delivered from brief notes, and he relied upon the inspira- 
tion of the hour for the language he should use. On Wed- 
nesday evenings he delivered sermons or lectures on 
theology ; these were afterwards published and used at 
Yale and in fact at many other theological schools not 
only in this country, but in England. He made his preach- 
ing so interesting, so attractive and clear, that people from 
neighboring towns often resorted to Greenfield to hear 
his discourses. Greenfield during those years, became the 
"resort of learning, of talents, of refinement, and of piety," 
and Dr. Dwight became one of the most prominent min- 
isters of the state. In 1787, when only 36 years of age, 
he was honored with the degree of D.D. from the College 
of New Jersey at Princeton, which meant at that time even 
more than the same degree means to-day. It should be 
mentioned here that a number of years later (1810), Har- 
vard conferred on him the degree of LL.D. 

But a day of disappointment was in store for the society 
of Greenfield. On June 25, 1795, the corporation of Yale 
College elected Dr. Dwight to its presidency. This action 
was to Greenfield like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky. 
Dr. Dwight was universally popular, the church was most 
prosperous and harmonious, and all parties apparently con- 
tented and satisfied. So it is not strange that when he 
called the consociation of churches together to advise him 
respecting his course, that the people of his parish unani- 
mously opposed his dismission, and acceptance of the 
presidency of Yale College. The following shows the 
feeling of the parish in regard to the dismissal: 



Rev. Timothy Dwight, 178 3-1 79 5 55 

"At a parish meeting legally warned and held in Greenfield Aug. 
5, 1795; Samuel Bradley Esq. chosen moderator; the society's com- 
mittee having informed this meeting that the Rev. Timothy Dwight 
D.D. pastor of the church and congregation in this place hath 
informed them that he hath called a consociation of ministers and 
delegates which are soon to meet in this place for the purpose of 
advising him respecting his being appointed to the presidency of 
Yale College by the corporation of said college; it was therefore 
submitted to the consideration of the meeting whether the inhabi- 
tants of this place are willing that the Rev. Doctor Dwight should 
accept of his appointment to the presidency of Yale College and 
take a dismission from the people of his charge as minister of this 
place. On the question being taken, it was determined unanimously 
in the negative. 

"Secondly, voted unanimously that it appears to us not only at 
this present time, but uniformly ever since Doctor Dwight hath been 
settled in the ministry with us, that there hath been a constant, 
uninterrupted harmony and good agreement between him and the 
people of this place, and to appearance is likely to remain so if he 
should continue with us. 

'Thirdly, voted unanimously, that although our society tax to 
support the gospel hath been higher than perhaps is common in our 
neighboring societies, yet we are of the opinion that it has been as 
cheerfully complied with, and as punctually paid as could be 
expected, or as is common in other societies, and perhaps more so, 
and that there is no present appearance that we shall fail of 
fulfilling our agreement with Dr. Dwight. 

"Fourthly, voted unanimously, that we are not acquainted with any 
uneasiness or cause of complaint in the mind of Dr. Dwight 
respecting the treatment of the people of this place towards him, 
and we declare ourselves to be perfectly satisfied with his public 
ministration and private conduct, and greatly fear that a separation 
between him and us may have a tendency to disunite the people 
from that steady and uniform religious sentiment and opinion that 
appears to be predominant at this time, and without more and 
greater reasons than we are at present acquainted with, are full 
in opinion that a separation will not only be unjust but impolitic, 
hurtful to the feelings and interests of the people, as well as 
detrimental to religion in this place. 

"Fifthly, the following committee was appointed to wait on the 
consociation, to represent the society, and lay the doings of this 
meeting before them : 



56 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

"Dea. David Williams, Samuel Bradley Esq., Dr. David Rogers, 
Daniel Sherwood, Elisha Bradley, Daniel Banks, Ebenezer Banks, 
Thomas Wheeler, Albert Sherwood, Capt. Joseph Buckley, Walter 
Bradley Esq., Capt. David Hubbell. 

"Seventy-four voters being present at this meeting." 

But this large committee of twelve persons to represent 
the church and society before the consociation and urge 
their claims, were unsuccessful, as shown by the recorded 
vote of the council : 

"The committee presented the votes of the Society, signifying their 
unwillingness that the pastoral relation between Dr. Dwight and 
them should be dissolved. But the consociation having taken into 
serious consideration the importance of the call of Dr. Dwight to 
the presidency of Yale College, and maturely weighed the circum- 
stances, are of the opinion that his election is a sufficient reason 
for him to desire a separation from his people, and that it is their 
duty to consent to it. And having made this declaration, we now 
think it proper that Dr. Dwight should declare what are his views of 
duty in the case. Dr. Dwight appeared and declared that he 
conceived it to be his duty to accept of his appointment. Where- 
upon (the committee of the society declining to make any further 
opposition to Dr. Dwight's dismission and withdrawing) the Council 
proceeded to the following vote: 'That Dr. Dwight be dismissed 
from his pastoral charge of the church and society of Greenfield, 
and he is hereby accordingly dismissed. When the Consociation 
reflect upon the great harmony and union which has ever subsisted 
between Dr. Dwight and the church and society of Greenfield, from 
his first settlement among them as their minister, it is with great 
pain that they have dissolved a relation cemented by so many years 
of love and usefulness. But viewing the office of President of an 
University as one of the most important to the interests of society 
and religion, principles of benevolence which dictate that a less 
good should give way to a greater, constrained the Consociation to 
think it the duty of Dr. Dwight and his people, however dear to 
each other, to consent to a separation; wishing them both grace, 
mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
It is the sincere prayer of the Consociation that the church and 
society of Greenfield may be kept in the same union that hath hith- 
erto prevailed among them, and soon resettle again in the order 



Rev. Timothy Dwight, 1783-1795 57 

of the gospel an able and acceptable minister ; and that Dr. Dwight 
may be made an extensive blessing to society, in training up youth 
for Church and State.' 
The above and foregoing voted as the doings of this Council. 

Test, John Noyes, Scribe. 
Greenfield, Aug. 11, 1795." 

The Greenfield society was grievously disappointed at 
the decision of Dr. Dwight and the action of the consocia- 
tion. In spite of the respect and affection for Dr. Dwight, 
the society in its childishness, with feelings so wounded, 
now claimed that Dr. Dwight had been settled for life, 
and that there were damages due them on account of his 
having taken his dismission. But the absence of any- 
further records on this matter, proves that Dr. Dwight's 
diplomacy again won the day and that a peaceful settlement 
was made. There is a tradition that the people of Greenfield 
were so enraged at the action of the consociation that they 
would never afterwards consent to hear any minister who 
took part in that decision preach from their pulpit. We 
do not wonder that the society objected so strenuously 
to Dr. Dwight's dismissal. Yale College was small with 
only no students, and even the population of New Haven 
was only about 400 more than that of Fairfield. But in 
the light of to-day, we can understand the wise decision 
of Dr. Dwight in accepting the office at Yale, where thou- 
sands eventually came under his influence, and among them 
those who have become prominent in many walks of life, 
rather than to have spent the remainder of his days in our 
quiet rural parish which never could have afforded such 
opportunities. A vote passed by the society two years after 
Dr. Dwight's removal to New Haven, shows that the 
parish still entertained the highest regard for him. The 
vote was this : "that Dr. Dwight shall be invited to preach 
here whenever convenient." 



58 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

So Dr. Dwight's pastorate at Greeenfield ended August 
II, 1795, and on September 8, following, at the age of 
43, he was inducted into the office of President of Yale 
College, which office he so ably filled for more than twenty- 
one years. The history of his work at Yale is too well 
known to need mention here. His biography is sketched 
by Moses C. Tyler, by Wm. B. Sprague, by his sons, Wm. 
T. and Sereno E. Dwight, and by others. 

We feel proud to think that Greenfield for twelve years 
was the home of one of the greatest divines that New 
England ever produced. We try to imagine how he must 
have looked with his black, piercing eyes, and his stately 
and majestic form. We like to think of his ability as a 
preacher, teacher and leader among men. It is restful to-day 
to think of him as taking such an interest not only in every- 
one with whom he came in contact, but in all affairs of life, 
particularly in the realm of nature, for it is said of him 
that even after he became President of Yale that he could 
discuss by the hour the cultivation of potatoes and cab- 
bage and the raising of sheep. No doubt his retentive 
memory may have been developed to a higher degree on 
account of the weakness of his eyes, for during his last 
forty years he was seldom free from anguish in that part 
of the head just back of the eyes, and seldom could use 
his eyes more than one-quarter of an hour a day. 

As a writer of both poetry and prose he gained not a 
little renown. Two poems were published during his 
Greenfield ministry: "Conquest of Canaan," in 1785, 
which had been begun when only nineteen years of age; 
and "Greenfield Hill," written in 1787 and published in 
1794. The latter was written, not for publication, but 
merely to amuse his own mind and relieve it from melan- 
choly. Both of his poetical works were republished in 
England, but neither of them reached a second edition in 
this country. He was requested to revise the Watts edi- 



Rev. Timothy Dwight, 178 '3-1795 59 

tion of the Psalms and prepare a selection of hymns suit- 
able for public worship. His hymn-book was used 
extensively in its day not only in Congregational churches 
of New England, but also in Presbyterian churches of the 
Middle and Southern states, and copies of it may be found 
occasionally to-day in the old homesteads of this vicinity. 
His most noted hymn was "I Love Thy Kingdom Lord." 
Besides the poems mentioned, he also wrote "The Triumph 
of Infidelity." It has been said of him that "he was only 
almost a poet, but not quite." 

Besides poems, his published writings include many ser- 
mons; also historical and miscellaneous productions. The 
book by which he is perhaps likely to be remembered the 
longest is "Travels in New England and New York," 
published four years after his death, and treats of a little 
of everything, but is largely drawn from his experiences 
during vacation time when he traveled through the country 
on horseback, which was a favorite pastime. 

In 1816 in the midst of abounding labors of every sort, 
he was smitten with disease, to which, after a struggle of 
eleven months, he slowly succumbed. Up to within a few 
weeks of his death, he performed his duties as college 
president and met his classes daily. He passed away 
January 11, 1817. 

After leaving Greenfield in 1795, his home, about one- 
eighth of a mile south of the church, was purchased by Dr. 
Isaac Bronson, a man of wealth from New York, and is 
still in the Bronson name. The last remnant of the original 
Dwight homestead was removed in 1871 to make room for 
an addition that was being built. 

Dr. Dwight had eight children, all boys. Four were 
born in Greenfield. Their names in the order of their birth 
are as follows : Timothy, Benjamin Woolsey, James, John, 
Sereno Edwards, an unnamed son dead at birth, William 
Theodore, Henry Edwin. The third son, James, became the 



60 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

father of Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., ex-President of 
Yale, who still resides in New Haven and is now well 
advanced in years. 

Dr. Dwight's wife, who came to Greenfield with him in 
her early life, lived on many years in her widowhood until 
she reached the ripe old age of ninety-one, when she too 
passed away. Their graves are both in the Grove Street 
Cemetery, New Haven. 



CHAPTER VI. 
Rev. Horace Holly and other Pastors, 1795-1812. 

THE dismission of Dr. Dwight was a severe blow to 
the church, and his place was not easily filled. 
Various candidates now supplied the pulpit. The first 
name mentioned is that of Rev. Mr. Beainfield, who began 
in November, 1795, and may have preached for several 
months, but on April 1, 1796, the society voted to hire the 
Rev. Samuel Blatchford, D.D., for one year, to pay him 
160 pounds for his services, and to pay $20 to defray 
charges of moving him to Greenfield. That the society 
was well pleased with Rev. Mr. Blatchford is shown by 
their further action, January 17, 1797, in voting to ask him 
"to continue preaching after his year is up, and so long 
as his administration shall be agreeable to us" ; and again, 
March 15, 1797, when it is voted to join with Stratfield 
for the purpose of hiring Rev. Mr. Blatchford to officiate 
in both parishes alternately as follows : one Sabbath at 
Greenfield, the next at Stratfield, and so on, and to pay 
him $300 a year for his services. At the same meeting 
a committee was appointed to carry out this plan, but Mr. 
Blatchford, instead of accepting the offer, after preach- 
ing one year at Greenfield, went to Stratfield, where he 
became pastor of what is now the First Congregational 
Church, Bridgeport, the church at that time being located 
in the Stratfield district. 

Rev. Mr. Blatchford was an Englishman, a good scholar 
and a sound theologian ; an acceptable preacher and pastor, 
and often eloquent in his address. He was the father of 
seventeen children. While in Greenfield he rented the 
Walter Bradley place, later known as the residence of 
Governor Tomlinson, just south of the present parsonage. 



62 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

For the next three years, there is no record of preachers 
except that the pulpit was kept supplied by a supply com- 
mittee, and that at one meeting it was voted to ask the 
ministers of the association to preach one Sabbath apiece. 

In March, 1800, Rev. Andrew Yates received a call to 
settle on a salary of $500 per year and 20 loads of wood, 
but he declined. 

In February, 1801, a call was extended to Rev. Stanley 
Griswold of New Milford, to settle on a salary of $560, 
but he too declined the offer. The call to him was renewed 
in February, 1803, and he was hired for a number of 
months, during which time he baptized fifty persons, eight 
adults and forty-two children. He was a Jeffersonian 
Democrat, and very popular with a portion of the people, 
and was disposed to administer religious ordinances in a 
broad church way. In after years he left the ministry, 
removed to Ohio, and there was chosen Senator of the 
United States, and became Judge of the Supreme Court 
of that state. 

In September, 1801, a call was given to Rev. Mr. Niles, 
but he too declined. In June, 1802, Rev. Washington 
McKnight was invited to settle in the work of the gospel 
ministry on a salary of $560. He accepted the call, and 
the day was appointed for the consociation to meet and 
effect the union, but objections being presented by a minor- 
ity of the church before the consociation, he withdrew his 
acceptance of the call, and the church continued to remain 
without a pastor; but the majority were so exasperated 
at losing Mr. McKnight, whom they admired, that they 
voted, September 9, 1802, "that Mr. Ward should not 
preach in the meeting-house, although he will preach for 
nothing." 

In 1804 it was voted that no person except a Presbyterian 
be admitted to preach in the meeting-house. 

It is difficult for us to understand why for ten years the 
society should be without a settled pastor. Many candi- 



Rev. Horace Holly and Other Pastors, 1795-18 12 63 

dates were heard, but either they would not accept the 
charge or the people could not agree on the man. 

At length, Rev. Horace Holly received a call, by vote 
of 53 to 7, to settle on a salary of $560, and was ordained 
September 13, 1805. The services at the ordination were: 
introductory prayer by Rev. Piatt Buffett ; sermon by Rev. 
Isaac Lewis, D.D. ; ordaining prayer by Rev. Matthias 
Burnett, D.D. ; charge to the pastor by Rev. Andrew 
Elliott ; right hand of fellowship by Rev. John Noyes ; 
address to the people by Rev. Justus Mitchell ; concluding 
prayer by Rev. Samuel Goodrich. 

Mr. Holly was born in Salisbury, Conn., February 13, 
1781, and graduated at Yale College in 1803. After a 
successful pastorate of three years, during which time he 
also taught the academy, he was dismissed at his own 
request, September 13, 1808. While in Greenfield, he, too, 
rented the Walter Bradley house just below the parsonage. 
He is said to have brought with him the first piano ever 
seen in Greenfield. 

Rev. Mr. Holly was a distinguished preacher, an eloquent 
orator, and the church and society increased in numbers 
and prospered under his administration. During his pas- 
torate there were added to the church forty-nine members 
on profession of their faith, making an average of six- 
teen each year. Soon after his settlement in Greenfield 
the church adopted its first confession of faith consisting 
of eight paragraphs or articles ; previous to this the test 
for membership was assent to the simply worded covenant 
adopted in 1726. 

While here, Mr. Holly was an evangelical minister of the 
gospel, but there was a change in his theological views 
when he became pastor of the Hollis Street Unitarian 
Church, Boston, in 1809. After leaving there, he was 
chosen president of the Transylvania University, Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky, which office he held nine years. Leaving 



64 Ye Church mid Parish of Greenfield 

there, he died on his voyage to New York of the yellow 
fever, July 31, 1827. 

Soon after the dismission of the Rev. Mr. Holly, October 
11, 1808, the society voted to refer a petition to the legis- 
lature of this state, to grant them a lottery for the purpose 
of raising a fund to assist in supporting the gospel ministry, 
and appointed Ebenezer Banks (who afterwards became 
deacon) their agent for the above purpose, with full power 
to employ counsel. The granting of lotteries to churches 
was not uncommon in the early days of the nineteenth 
century, and that method of securing funds was considered 
quite proper. The Fairfield Episcopal Society, which had 
its edifice at Mill Plain, applied in 1818 to the legislature 
to grant them a lottery to raise $10,000 to use in finishing 
their church and supporting a clergyman. Permission was 
granted and the sum of $4,752.13 was realized. In the case 
of the Greenfield society, however, the petition was not 
granted. 

In April, 1809, Rev. Mr. Crocker was invited to preach 
one-half the time for the next six months on a salary of 
$8.50 per Sabbath. It is not known whether he accepted 
the offer or not. 

On May 17, 1810, the society extended a call to Rev. 
David Austin, who had already supplied the pulpit for 
several months, to take "charge and oversight" of the 
church and congregation, provided he would accept a three 
cent tax for his yearly salary. This suggests that perhaps 
the grand list for the parish was in the neighborhood of 
$16,000. However, some residents were excused from pay- 
ing their tax if they belonged to another "persuasion," as 
for instance, Moses Betts was "exhonorated from paying 
one-half his tax, he being a Methodist." Mr. Austin did 
not accept the offer, and so at a subsequent meeting, June 
28, 1810, the society offered $500 a year instead of the 
three cent tax. Mr. Austin continued to supply the pulpit 



Rev. Horace Holly and Other Pastors, 1795-18 12 65 

on these terms for about a year and one-half, or until 
September, 181 1. He was one of the most popular and 
eccentric preachers of his day, but his reason is supposed 
to have been affected by an illness of the scarlet fever 
while pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Elizabethtown, 
N. J. He believed in the literal return of the Israelites to 
the Holy Land, and that the Jews of the United States 
would assemble at New Haven, where he built houses for 
them and a wharf for their use, and from there, the place 
of Mr. Austin's birth, he believed the Jews would embark 
for the land of Israel. But with all his errors and eccen- 
tricity, he was liked as a preacher on account of his elo- 
quence, intelligence and amiableness of character. Near 
the close of his life, he became more rational and scriptural 
in his views, and died in peace, rejoicing in hope of the 
glory of God. 



CHAPTER VII. 
Rev. William Belden and other Pastors, 1812-1841. 

FOR a year or so the pulpit was again supplied with 
various preachers and candidates. In May, 1812, a 
call was given to Rev. William Belden, and a salary offered 
of $400 per year. Mr. Belden thought this amount insuf- 
ficient for his support, and did not accept. However, on 
August 3, following, the society offered him $550 a year, 
which he accepted. Mr. Belden came to Greenfield from 
the Presbytery of New Jersey, and was installed October 
1, 1812, the services consisting of: introductory prayer 
by Rev. Sylvanus Haight ; sermon by Rev. Mr. Waterman ; 
ordaining prayer by Rev. Isaac Lewis, D.D. ; charge to 
the pastor by Rev. Hezekiah Ripley, D.D. ; right hand of 
fellowship by Rev. Heman Humphrey, D.D. ; address to 
the people by Rev. Daniel Smith; concluding prayer by 
Rev. John Noyes. 

It is said of Mr. Belden that he excelled more as a 
teacher of youth than as a preacher of the gospel, and 
during a large portion of the nine years that he was the 
settled pastor at Greenfield, he also taught school. He was 
the last teacher of note in the academy built for Dr. Dwight, 
and he also taught for two years in the old Fairfield Acad- 
emy, near the present Episcopal Church, which was quite 
a celebrated institution at that time, many students attend- 
ing from the South. 

It was during the pastorate of Mr. Belden that the state 
of Connecticut adopted a new constitution, and the one in 
use at the present time. Up to 1818, Congregational 
churches were favored by legislation, and every voter taxed 
for their support. The new constitution of that year 



Rev. William Belden and Other Pastors, 1812-1841 67 

enacted that "no preference shall be given by law to any 
Christian sect or mode of worship." The new law was 
a disappointment to many. Dr. Lyman Beecher said, "It 
was as dark a day as I ever saw," but in later years he 
said, "It was the best thing that ever happened to the 
state of Connecticut. It threw the churches wholly on 
their own resources and on God." But dark days were 
ahead and it took the Greenfield Congregational Society 
more than twenty years to adapt itself to the new law, and 
even eke out an existence without state aid. Mr. Belden 
no doubt caught a glimpse of the first dark days under the 
new law. 

In 1812, or thereabouts, Mr. Belden purchased of Capt. 
David Hubbell the house built for Mr. Pomeroy about 
1757, and occupied it as long as he was pastor of the 
Greenfield Church. After nine years of labor for the 
intellectual and spiritual welfare of his flock, he was dis- 
missed from his pastorate April 3, 182 1. 

After his dismission the pulpit was supplied for a time 
by the Rev. Mr. Nicholson, an Englishman. 

On November 22, 1822, a unanimous call was extended 
to Rev. Richard Varick Dey to become pastor with a salary 
of $600. Mr. Dey accepted and was ordained here January 
15, 1823. The services of ordination were: introductory 
prayer by Rev. Nathan Burton; sermon by Stephen W. 
Rowan, D.D. (a sermon that made such an impression that 
the society afterwards voted to pay for having it printed, 
copies of the same being still available) ; ordaining prayer 
by Rev. John Noyes ; charge to the pastor by Rev. Nathan- 
iel Freeman ; right hand of fellowship by Rev. Edward W. 
Hooker ; address to the people by Rev. Daniel Smith ; con- 
cluding prayer by Rev. Henry Fuller. 

Rev. Mr. Dey was born in New York City, January 
11, 1801, and was a grandson of Rev. Archibald Laidlie, 
D.D. He had graduated from Columbia College in 1818 



68 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

the valedictorian of his class, and attended the Dutch 
Reformed Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J., 
completing his course in 1821. He was licensed as a Con- 
gregational preacher and Greenfield was his first charge. 
On September 11, 1822, just before coming to Greenfield, 
he had married Miss Lavinia A. Scott of New Brunswick, 
N.J. 

There are very few persons living to-day who can 
remember Mr. Dey, but he has gone down in history as 
being a handsome young man of commanding presence 
and a pastor who at once became a general favorite in the 
parish. He also became popular outside of his own parish, 
and multitudes flocked to hear him; in fact it has been 
said that the old meeting-house was not large enough to 
accommodate the congregation. According to the state- 
ment of his daughter, now 89 years of age, Mrs. Dey, the 
young wife of the new pastor, established the first Sunday- 
School in Greenfield and superintended it for some time. 

Mr. Dey's pastorate at Greenfield was during an age of 
intemperance, and the popular young preacher was criti- 
cised for drinking the social glass with some of his dis- 
tinguished parishioners. In regard to the common custom 
of using liquor in those days, we quote from a Connecticut 
history : 

"At the time of the Revolution, and for many years afterwards, 
the usages of society permitted the general use of ardent spirits in 
the homes of the people and on festive occasions. Cider and New 
England rum distilled from molasses, were the favorite beverages. 
Even at the ordination and installation of ministers, the entertain- 
ment of guests was thought incomplete if a supply of various kinds 
of liquor was lacking. Soon after Lyman Beecher was settled as 
pastor in Litchfield (1810), he attended an installation of a neigh- 
boring minister, where the preparations for the comfort of those 
in attendance 'besides food, was a broad side-board covered with 
decanters and bottles and sugar and pitchers of water.' 'There,' 
says Dr. Beecher, 'we found all the various kinds of liquors then 



Rev. William Belden and Other Pastors, 1812-1841 69 

in vogue. The drinking was apparently universal. Gentlemen 
partook of the decanter of spirits through the afternoon and evening 
as they felt the need; and the side-board, with the spillings of 
water and sugar and liquor, looked and smelled like a bar of a 
very active grog-shop.' " 

Living in such an age of intemperance and being bril- 
liant and companionable, the young Greenfield clergyman 
may not always have used discretion while associating 
with his parishioners, but we are inclined to believe to-day 
that the greater sin was committed by the parishioners, 
rather than by the pastor. However that may be, the name 
of Rev. Richard V. Dey has been handed down to us as 
the name of a most distinguished preacher and pulpit 
orator. Not since the days of Dwight had there been such 
a flow of eloquence from the Greenfield pulpit, and it is 
doubtful if any of his successors for many years compared 
with him as a public speaker. Many of his parishioners 
who recognized his ability were loath to part with him 
when the consociation dissolved the pastoral relation in 
December, 1828. So great was the attendance when he 
delivered his farewell sermon that the galleries of the old 
meeting-house were propped to sustain the additional weight. 

When Rev. and Mrs. Dey first came to Greenfield they 
boarded with Captain Nichols, the father of Mrs. Milbank. 
Later Mr. Dey's father built for him the house now stand- 
ing northwest of the present church, and known as^ the 
old Samuel Nichols place. Members of the parish assisted 
in building the house and also furnished much of the 
lumber. Mrs. Dey drew the plans for the house and planted 
the shrubbery and trees which still adorn the place. 

After leaving Greenfield, Mr. Dey preached in the Para- 
clite Church, Vandewater Street, New York City, 1829 to 
1831; Huguenot Church, Charleston, S. C, 1831 to 1832; 
supplied Bleecker Street Church, New York City, and 
preached in the Apollo rooms on Broadway, near Canal 



70 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

Street, 1832 to 1835; stated supply at Upper Black Eddy, 
Pa., and Milford, N. J., 1835. Mr. Dey died near Chatham, 
N. J., on September 20, 1837, and his body was placed in the 
family vault in Greenwood Cemetery. 

Rev. and Mrs. Dey had seven children. The first child, 
Richard Varick, was born and died the same day at Green- 
field; Mary Laidlie, born 1824, in Fairfield; Lavinia A., 
born at Greenfield, 1826, died 1832; Anthony, born at 
Greenfield, 1829, died 1912; Joseph W., born and died 
1831 in New York; Joseph W., born in New Brunswick, 
N. J., 1832, died in Lexington, Ky., 1905 ; Richard Varick, 
born 1835 in New York, and has been a resident of San 
Francisco for more than fifty years. Mrs. Dey, the pas- 
tor's wife, died March 31, 1886, in her 81st year. 

There is little doubt that during the years following 
Mr. Dey's dismission, the church was poorly supported, 
and the religious interest of the community was at a low 
ebb. In fact, in November, 1829, the society voted "to 
hire no preaching"; soon after this the society was made 
defendant in a law-suit brought by an Enos Bussey in the 
county court ; and then for the next five years, according 
to the records the society was trying to raise money to pay 
debts. 

But we are not to suppose that the meeting-house was 
closed for any length of time, for on February 8, 1832, 
Rev. Samuel Merwin, who had been preaching for some 
time, received a call to settle as pastor at a salary of $600 
a year, — a call that came too late, as Rev. Mr. Merwin 
had just accepted a call to Wilton, where he preached for 
many years. Rev. Charles Nicholl also supplied the pulpit 
for a year or two, but there were few who assembled to 
hear him. 

The old method of supporting the church by taxation 
was slowly giving way to voluntary contributions. Since 
the adoption by the state of the new constitution in 1818, 



Rev. William Belden and Other Pastors, 1812-1841 71 

the parish could not legally assess or collect taxes, and the 
parishioners were slow about paying them. The last tax 
levied according to the records, was in 1828, and was 
eight cents. The last collectors mentioned are Eliphalet 
Banks in 1829, and Morris Burr in 1830, and the latter in 
1 83 1 was ordered to collect all outstanding taxes on every 
book. For this work, the collector usually received $10 
to $14 a year. 

The records plainly show who were the pillars of the 
church and society in those days. Some of the names most 
prominently mentioned are these: Hon. Gideon Tomlinson, 
Abram D. Baldwin, Dr. Rufus Blakeman, Judge David 
Hill, Samuel Betts, Gershom Wakeman, Seth Jennings, 
Hull Bradley, and Walter Bradley; and for advice, par- 
ticularly in finances, the society often turned to Dr. Isaac 
Bronson ; in fact, Mr. Bronson, in 1835, offered to give as 
much toward the pastor's salary as could be raised by the 
entire parish. 

Rev. Nathaniel Freeman, who at his own request had 
been dismissed from the pastorate in Easton Centre, April, 
1832, began to supply the pulpit at Greenfield, October 1st 
of the same year, and the following April was hired for 
one year, he having agreed to accept a subscription as his 
compensation. Again, in March, 1834, the subscription 
paper was passed around, one solicitor taking each school 
district, and the amount pledged, $204, was offered to Mr. 
Freeman. This he accepted. The same method was pur- 
sued each spring, and Mr. Freeman continued as acting 
pastor for eight and one-half years, or until April 1, 1841. 
His salary was whatever the people were willing to sub- 
scribe, the lowest amount mentioned being $115.50 for the 
year beginning April 1, 1836, and it is doubtful if his salary 
ever exceeded $300 in any one year. 

There are very few items on record of more than 
ordinary interest during those years of Mr. Freeman's min- 



72 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

istry. It is stated that the parish meetings were poorly 
attended in 1834. A vote of one of the meetings about 
this time appropriates the western side of the gallery to 
the use of females, and the eastern side to males. In 1838, 
a subscription is taken to hire Mr. E. A. Williams to teach 
singing-school two quarters, and lead the singing in church 
one year. 

No one can read the record of those years of devoted 
service of Rev. Mr. Freeman without having a feeling of 
admiration for the man. He seems to have been sent in the 
good providence of God to a people sorely in need; and 
how faithfully he preached the gospel amid many discour- 
agements, trials and afflictions. The character of the man 
may even be read in a receipt that he gave the parish by 
request after preaching a number of years. The original 
slip is pasted on the records and reads : 

'This certifies that I have no demands against the Ecclesiastical 
Society of Greenfield and that I shall never make any demands for 
past services." 

Nathaniel Freeman. 



Mr. Freeman lived in many different houses during those 
years that he supplied the Greenfield Church. He lived 
for a time in a house that once stood just north of the 
H. M. Wheeler corner; at another time, in the Charles 
Bradley place; in the Wilson Sherwood house; also in 
the house now occupied by John B. Wakeman, Hull's 
Farms; and for a considerable time in an old house that 
stood just east of Andrew B. Wakeman's, on the property 
now owned by Dr. Miles. Besides preaching, he devoted 
some time during the week to the taking of daguerreo- 
types, this work being done in the old William Bradley 
store that stood just west of Mrs. William Bradley's 
residence. 



Rev. William Belden and Other Pastors, 18 12-18 4.1 73 

While pastor here, Mr. Freeman was called to part 
with his much-beloved wife and seven of his children. 
Joseph, aged 12, William, 10, and Mary, 18, died in 1836; 
Charles, 23, Elizabeth, 9, and Maria, 18, died in 1837; 
Henry, 22, died in 1838. Mary B. Freeman, his wife, also 
died in 1837, aged 52. There were also two other sons, 
John and Nathaniel, and two daughters, Harriet and 
Sophia, who lived to a more mature age, but nothing having 
been heard from them in many years, it is supposed that 
they have all long since passed away. 

Mr. Freeman lived thirteen years after severing his con- 
nection with the Greenfield Church, and died June 21, 1854, 
aged 76 years. He was buried beside his wife and chil- 
dren, and their graves are marked by a tall brown monu- 
ment, near the southwest corner of the old Greenfield 
Cemetery. 

It has been stated that the pews in the so-called Dwight 
meeting-house were owned by the ones who occupied them, 
and if a pew was sold, a deed was as necessary as in case 
of the sale of a farm. The following is a copy of a deed 
of a pew during the ministry of Rev. Mr. Freeman : 

"Know all men by these presents that I, Lewis N. Nash of the 
town of Westport, in the county of Fairfield, for the consideration 
of Five Dollars, received to my full satisfaction of Hezekiah Price 
of Fairfield in said county, have bargained and sold and do by these 
presents bargain, sell and convey unto the said Hezekiah Price all 
right, title and interest which I have or ought to have in and to a 
certain pew in the Presbyterian meeting-house in the parish of 
Greenfield in said Fairfield, it being the second pew east of the 
pulpit, and is the same pew formerly owned by John Jennings now 
dec'd, reference being had to the records of said parish of Greenfield, 
and I hereby relinquish, release and quitclaim unto the said 
Hezekiah all the title, interest, claim, and demand which I have to 
said described pew; so that I, the said Lewis N. Nash nor any 
person claiming by, from, or under me shall hereafter have any 
claim or right to said pew. 



74 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 13th 
day of Nov. A. D. 1839. 

Signed, sealed and delivered Lewis N. Nash seal 

in the presence of 
Alva Gray 
Charles Fox 

Fairfield County ss 
Westport, Nov. 13, 1839. 
Personally appeared Lewis N. Nash, signer and sealer of the 
foregoing instrument and acknowledged the same to be his free 
act and deed before me. 

Alva Gray, Justice of Peace. 

The above is a true copy of the original writing. 

T. M. Banks, clerk." 

It will be noticed that the name "Presbyterian" is used 
in the above deed. "Presbyterian Society of Greenfield," 
is also mentioned many times on the old records. It is a 
fact that all through Connecticut, the name Presbyterian 
was often associated with the early churches, and used 
in many deeds and wills. The church is referred to also 
in some of the records as the "Church of Christ." The 
first mention of the name "Congregational" on our rec- 
ords is in 1 82 1, but the name has never been officially 
adopted by vote of the society. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Rev. T. B. Sturges, 1842-1867. 

IT IS evident from the records that Mr. Freeman did 
not wish longer to serve the church as pastor, so in 
March, 1841, a committee was instructed to employ a 
minister and circulate a subscription paper. About $350 
being pledged, an effort was made in August of that year 
to call and settle Rev. Rodney G. Dennis, who for some 
months had been preaching in Greenfield. But Mr. Dennis 
having accepted another call, Rev. Thomas B. Sturges 
supplied the pulpit during the winter of 1841-42, and the 
following April was given a call to settle as pastor at a 
salary of $550 per year. 

Mr. Sturges was a native of Bridgeport, Conn., born 
in 181 1, and the only child of Joseph Sturges, a carpenter, 
joiner, and lumber-merchant. He had prepared for col- 
lege at Andover Academy, Mass., graduated at Yale in 
1835, spent two years at Andover Theological Seminary, 
and one year at the Yale Divinity School, finishing his 
studies in 1838. His first parish was Sackett's Harbor, 
N. Y., where he married Hannah W. Baker, August 16, 
1 841. On account of his health he had resigned his charge 
in that place and returned to Bridgeport. 

Mr. Sturges' acceptance follows : 

"May 5, 1842. 

To the Congregational Church and Society of Greenfield : 
Dear Brethren and Friends : — 

I learn through your committee that you have done me the 
unexpected honor of inviting me to remain among you and settle 
with you as your pastor. It is more than six months since I first 
came among you, and during that period, more than the usual 
opportunity for judging whether my labors were likely to prove 
acceptable and profitable, has been afforded you. The opinion you 
have formed of my labors is implied in your invitation. As there 



76 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

appears to be quite a degree of uninamity in your call, which is a 
necessary condition for usefulness, it has appeared to be my duty 
to accept it and I therefore do accept it. 

That you may never regret that you have given this invitation, 
and that I may never regret that I have accepted it, let it be our 
mutual prayer. Hoping that He whom I trust and humbly desire 
to serve will abundantly bless my future labors and our future 

intercourse. 

Thomas B. Sturges." 

The services of the ordination, June 10, 1842, were: 
introductory prayer by Rev. John W. Alvord; sermon by 
Rev. Edwin Hall, D.D. ; ordaining prayer by Rev. Ezra 
D. Kenney ; charge to the pastor by Rev. Noah Coe ; right 
hand of fellowship by Rev. Lyman H. Atwater, D.D. ; 
address to the people by Rev. Theophilus Smith ; conclud- 
ing prayer by Rev. Chauncey Wilcox. 

Forty-five years later the following words were spoken: 
"There are some of us who remember the ordination and 
installation services of Mr. Sturges ; the attendance was 
large, interest deep, and greetings to young pastor most 
cordial. The music is recalled as very excellent. Among 
the anthems was the 24th Psalm. Some of us remember 
Mr. Sturges' youthful presence, his zealous, earnest, win- 
ning manners. Thus commenced the happy and fruitful 
pastorate which continued, and was not terminated till he 
had three times urged the parish to allow him to retire." 

Rev. Mr. Sturges' early ministry was blest with a gen- 
eral revival, as the fruit of which, forty-two persons united 
with the church on profession in 1843. Soon after Mr. 
Sturges' settlement, the subject of building a new house 
of worship was agitated. It seemed unwise to expend 
more in the repair of the old meeting-house, which had 
been in use for more than eighty years. The hardest 
problem to solve was not the raising of funds, but how to 
get the consent of the pew-owners, who held their pews 
by deeds derived from their fathers. But after much labor 




REV. THOMAS B. STURGES. 



Rev. T. B. Sturges, 1842-186/ 77 

on the part of the pastor, Governor Tomlinson, and others, 
the necessary vote was secured to pull down the old and 
build a new meeting-house. 

The following votes passed on February 18, 1845, show 
the preliminary steps taken in the matter of building: 

"Voted unanimously, that the new meeting-house, which the 
society, by a vote of more than two-thirds of the members present, 
has agreed to build, shall be erected on Greenfield Hill, on the com- 
mon or place of parade, and shall be so placed that the west side 
thereof shall not be west of the west end of the meeting-house 
now standing thereon, and the east side shall not be east of the east 
side of the steeple as it now stands, and that the south end of 
said new meeting-house shall not be more than twenty feet south 
of the south side, and the north end thereof shall not be more than 
twenty feet north of the north side of the meeting-house as it now 
stands. 

"That the precise site of said new meeting-house, within the limits 
mentioned in the preceding vote, shall be determined and fixed by 
the committee of the society who shall be appointed to make a 
contract for building and finishing the same, and that the site fixed 
by said committee shall be and is hereby established as the place on 
which said meeting-house shall be erected. 

"That the pews or slips in the meeting-house which the society 
of Greenfield have this day agreed to build shall be rented from 
time to time, in pursuance of such regulations as the members of 
said society lawfully assembled may establish, to provide for the 
support of a minister of the gospel, and religious public worship in 
said society. 

"That as the cost and expense of building the new meeting-house 
now agreed to be built, is to be paid by the subscriptions of individ- 
uals and without any tax, this society shall be bound and pledged 
to said individuals not to mortgage, nor to authorize any person or 
persons to mortgage said meeting-house or church for any debt or 
purpose whatever. 

"That Gideon Tomlinson, Rufus Blakeman, Wm. B. Morehouse, 
Col. Horace Banks, and John Banks, be, and they are hereby 
appointed a committee of this society to superintend and oversee the 
building of the new meeting-house which the society has agreed to 
build, and that said committee be and they are hereby fully author- 
ized and empowered to make a contract with some responsible 



78 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

builder, to build and finish said new meeting-house, according to 
their discretion and judgment. 

"That the committee aforesaid shall have full power and authority 
from this society, according to their discretion and judgment, to 
select and adopt the design, form and arrangement of said new 
meeting-house, and prescribe the manner in which said new meeting- 
house shall be built and finished, and that the several sums which 
have been subscribed for said purpose, amounting to more than 
three thousand, six hundred dollars, as will appear by two subscrip- 
tion papers communicated to this meeting and made payable to John 
Banks, the treasurer of the Congregational Society of Greenfield or 
his successor in that office, shall be and they are hereby inviolably 
appropriated and pledged, and ordered to be expended by said com- 
mittee in defraying the cost and expense of building said new 
meeting-house. 

"That this society order and direct that the meeting-house now 
standing on Greenfield Hill shall be taken down, and all the materials 
of which it is composed, except the pews on the ground floor, and 
the spots or places on which they are built, shall be sold under the 
direction of the society's committee, and that the avails of such 
sale shall be applied towards defraying the expenses of building the 
new meeting-house. 

"That the society's committee be and they are hereby authorized 
and directed, if they consider it expedient and proper, to cause the 
old meeting-house to be removed, before or after the steeple shall be 
taken down, from its present site to such place near thereto, as they 
shall designate, where it may be used for public worship, as it has 
heretofore been, until the new meeting-house shall be completed, 
when the old meeting-house shall be taken down and sold and the 
avails of such sale applied in accordance with the vote already 
passed." 

In regard to the last vote, the parish committee, con- 
sisting of Dea. John Banks, Dea. Wm. B. Morehouse, and 
Mr. Samuel Betts, thought it not wise to move the old 
meeting-house from its foundation and continue its use 
for public worship, so it was all pulled down at once, and 
the society worshipped in all probability in the old Dwight 
Academy until the new building was completed. As far 
as possible the sound timbers and boards taken from the 
old meeting-house, were used in the construction of the 




(tothic Church. 

1845.- {^„n6U>H,LLCo„r. -J853. 



TAKEN FROM A LEAD-PENCIL SKETCH MADE BY MR. ISAAC MILBANK. 



Rev. T. B. St urges, iS '42-186 7 79 

new one, estimated at $200 worth. Everything was sold 
except the pews, stepping-stones, and lightning-rod, and 
the money applied to the building of the new church. The 
weather-cock vane was sold to Samuel Grant to be melted 
up for the lead it contained, one glass eye only being 
rescued by a son of the late Dr. Blakeman, and still treas- 
ured at the old Blakeman homestead. The sounding- 
board and pulpit were for years stored in the barns 
on the Bronson estate, but have now long since gone to 
the rubbish-heap or into kindling-wood. Parts of the 
interior wood-work were purchased and used in various 
houses in Greenfield in making doors, mantels, etc., and 
also for fences and gates ; but to-day, after a lapse of 
67 years, almost nothing remains of the historic structure. 
A list of some of the prominent subscribers to the new 
meeting-house is given below: 

"We, the subscribers for building the new meeting-house, the 
amount of whose several subscriptions will appear on a subscription- 
paper dated Jan. 27, 1845, do hereby respectively give ouf consent 
to the vote establishing the place where said new meeting-house or 
church shall be erected, and likewise our consent to the precise site 
determined on and fixed by the committee as before stated. Dated 
at Greenfield June 24, 1845." 

Gideon Tomlinson Rufus Blakeman Willis Nichols 
Mrs. Isaac Bronson Mary Bronson Frederick Bronson 
Hezekiah Banks William Bradley William Burr 
William Bradley Jr. Alson L. Hull Eliphalet B. Hull 
Morris M. Merwin Mrs. Wm. Sherwood Eunice Banks 
Cyrus Sherwood Eleanor Coley William Nichols 
John Banks Ebenezer Silliman Timothy Bulkley 
Samuel Betts Mary Betts Seth Jennings 
Sturges L. Brewster Lewis Burr Henry Bradley 
Charles Nichols Uriah Sherwood David Burr 
William B. Morehouse Horace Banks Samuel Merwin 
Hezekiah B. Merwin Walter O. Merwin Zalmon Price 
Samuel Wheeler Abraham Sherwood Sarah L. Banks 
Bradley Banks Samuel Grant Hill Meeker 
Sarah Wynkoop William Banks 2nd Lyman Banks 



80 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

Especial mention should be made of several members 
of the Bronson and Murray families, and Deacons Wm. B. 
Morehouse and John Banks, who were foremost among 
those who contributed generously and worked so nobly 
in the laborious work of building a new house of worship. 

The contract was let to Jonathan Beers of North Bridge- 
port, on June 25, 1845, and the church was to be com- 
pleted in six months. The contract price was $4,800, but 
$750, and probably more, was expended later to complete 
the building. The plans and specifications had been fur- 
nished by the noted New York architect, Richard Upjohn, 
the designer of Trinity Church, New York, and many other 
churches and public buildings. The style of the church 
was what was commonly known in architecture as "Gothic," 
and considered by everyone as very beautiful. During the 
few years it remained standing it was known as the 
handsomest church in this section. According to the con- 
tract there was to be no cellar, the foundation being laid 
in trenches dug below the frost line. The length of the 
body of the church was 80 feet and the width 40 feet, 
while the ground plan showed the base of the steeple on 
the southeast corner, to be 13^ feet square. The build- 
ing extended north and south, just opposite to the one 
that had been pulled down, with the main entrance on the 
south, and perhaps another entrance to the steeple. The 
three long windows on each side and also the windows 
in the steeple, contained diamond-shaped lights. The 
interior was most conveniently arranged, even to the con- 
struction of a place for the Sunday-School library with 
double doors in the walls of the church. A new bell was 
procured by subscription, and the Ladies' Sewing Society 
assisted in purchasing church furniture. 

Through the kindness of Mrs. Mary Milbank, we have 
a list of the food-supplies donated on the occasion of the 
raising of this church. Mrs. Milbank's mother had charge 



Rev. T. B. Sturges, 1842-1867 81 

of feeding the men and all supplies were brought to her 
house. The building was a difficult one to raise and sev- 
eral days were probably necessary, the men of the parish 
perhaps coming only in the afternoon. 

18 loaves cake from Hull's Farms, 

2 " " " the Misses Abbie and Mary Sherwood, 
6 " " " Mrs. Capt. Baldwin, 

4 " " " Mrs. Samuel Perry, 

3 " " " Mrs. Rufus Blakeman, 
2 " " " Mrs. Samuel Betts, 

2 " " " Mrs. Wm. Banks, 

2 " " " Mrs. Wood, 

4 " " " Mrs. David Hill, 

3 " " " Mrs. T. B. Sturges, 

4 " " " Mrs. Col. Banks, 

2 " " " Mrs. W. O. Merwin, 

2 " " " Mrs. Hill Meeker and doughnuts, 

3 " " " Miss Sally Banks, 
1 " " " Mrs. Brewster, 

1 " " " Mrs. Samuel Nichols and 2 pies, 

2 " Mrs. Samuel Middlebrook, 

8 " " Mrs. Samuel Merwin and Hezekiah Merwin, 

1 " " " Mrs. Henry Bradley, 

4 " Miss Polly Banks, (sister of Minot), 

1 " " " Mrs. Jennings, 

2 " " " Mrs. Phoebe Gould, 

4 " " " Mrs. Charles Nichols, 

17 baskets of crackers and a great quantity of cheese from Burr's 

Dist, 
Large basket of crackers from Mrs. P. Banks, 
Large cheese from Mrs. Charles Wakeman, 
Half a cheese and half a bushel crullers from Hezekiah and Horace 

Ogden, 
Half bushel doughnuts from the Misses Sally and Angeline Ogden, 
A quantity of doughnuts from Mrs. Price and Mrs. Perry, 
25 pounds crackers and a large cheese from Gov. Tomlinson. 

While the contract called for the completion of the 
church before January 1, 1846, the records show that the 

6 



82 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

building was not completed till much later, and even late 
in 1846, when the contractor considered his part of the 
contract performed, the building was far from satisfac- 
tory, largely on account of defects in the spire. The society 
was unable to agree on terms of settlement with the con- 
tractor and voted to leave the matter to the architect, Mr. 
Upjohn; but Mr. Upjohn's decision did not suit Mr. Beers 
and the latter finally brought suit against the society, 
which suit continued in the courts for more than a year, 
during which time Col. Horace Banks acted as agent of 
the society and employed counsel. So it was not until 
March 29, 1848, that the church building was accepted 
by the society. 

On November 2, 1850, the Ladies' Sewing Society asked 
permission to place a furnace under the church at their 
own expense; their request was readily granted, but the 
furnace, perhaps through improper management, proved 
to be a poor investment and most disastrous in destroying 
property, for three years later, after having been in use 
but little more than five years, between Sunday evening, 
November 13, and the morning of November 14, 1853, 
this most beautiful and much-admired house of worship 
was entirely consumed by fire. The loss was a great dis- 
appointment to those who had built the church at much 
expense, toil and sacrifice, and we do not wonder that they 
felt somewhat discouraged. 

Soon after the burning of the Gothic church, Capt. 
Abram D. Baldwin opened his large house and kindly 
invited the people of Greenfield to meet there during the 
winter for their worship ; but arrangements were soon 
made with the "school society" for the use of the "new" 
academy until another church could be erected. Insurance 
money amounting to $4,000 was obtained on the burned 
building, and in a few months, $2,500 additional had been 
subscribed. In the spring of 1854, the society voted to 




X 



Rev. T. B. Sturges, 1842-1867 83 

build a new church, and for a time considered the advis- 
ability of placing it on or near the spot where the McClel- 
lan house, now known as the old Colonel Nichols place, was 
then standing; but the site of the former church was 
finally decided on as the most desirable. 

The following committee was appointed to select a plan 
to be submitted to the society for approval, to let the con- 
tract, and to superintend the building: John Banks, Cyrus 
Sherwood, Bradley Merwin. It was voted that this church 
should have a basement under at least two-thirds of it, 
and Thomas Merwin and William Sherwood took the con- 
tract for the excavation. Albert C. Nash furnished the 
plans, for which he was paid $100. The mason work of 
the underpinning was performed by John Conrad, and 
the contractor for the carpenter work was David Smith 
of Black Rock (brother of Franklin Smith of Greenfield), 
the contract price being $5,500. The interior decorating 
of walls, considered at the time a work of art, was done 
by Oris Fritz of New York, for $250. A new bell was 
purchased at a cost of $276.80, and put in place October 
4, 1854, but the building was not entirely completed and 
accepted by the society until February, 1855, at which time 
a vote of thanks was tendered Dea. John Banks for his 
"untiring service in superintending the building of the new 
church, as building committee and treasurer." 

On April 10, 1855, the church was dedicated and on the 
following day, the slips rented. For heating purposes, 
one wood and one coal stove were installed; a number of 
years later these were replaced by a furnace. Some time 
during the sixties, the basement was fitted up for a Sunday- 
School room and used for ten years or more, but finally 
abandoned on account of the dampness and poor ventilation. 

Early in 1857, Rev. Mr. Sturges asked that the consocia- 
tion be called to dissolve the pastoral relation, but the 
society voted on April 8 of that year not to concur in any 



84 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

such action and also voted to increase the pastor's salary 
to $700, at which figure it remained during the balance of 
his ministry. In 1859, the parish gave him leave of 
absence for six months, and supplied the pulpit while he 
made an extended journey in Europe, European and Asiatic 
Turkey, Egypt and the Holy Land. Ten years later, 
April, 1867, Mr. Sturges asked to be dismissed on account 
of impaired health; the society at first voted him several 
months' vacation, but at a later meeting, May 24, 1867, 
voted to unite with him in calling the consociation to dis- 
solve the relation between pastor and people. The fol- 
lowing vote was also passed : 

"That while we deplore the impaired health of Mr. Sturges which 
has rendered necessary a severance of his ministerial relations with 
us, we wish to assure him that in his retirement from this field of 
his labors, he will bear with him the universal respect and esteem 
of his parishioners, together with the most grateful recollections of 
this church and society. And we do hereby tender him our hearty 
thanks for his valuable ministerial services among us and our best 
wishes for his prosperity and welfare in all conditions which may 
await his future career in life." 

In accordance with his request, the consociation on June 
4, 1867, dismissed Mr. Sturges from his charge, but he 
never moved away from the parish in which he had 
chosen to reside so many years and which was so dear 
to him. In 1872, with his wife and two daughters, he went 
abroad, visiting England, France, Switzerland and Ger- 
many, returning in 1876. 

During the twenty years, from the time of his dismission 
as pastor to the date of his death, he was a most faithful 
attendant at divine service. "His last illness was brief. 
Quietly and painlessly he fell asleep and rested from his 
labors. On Sunday, May 1, 1887, he sat at the Lord's 
table and joined in worship. Next Sabbath, May 8, he 
shared the sinless communion of the upper sanctuary." 



Rev. T. B. Sturges, 1842-1862 85 

Thomas Benedict Sturges gave to Greenfield all the 
years of his active life. He had calls to churches of 
larger influence and strength than this, but always quietly 
laid them aside. He said that after all his travels in the 
old world and in the new, he never found so beautiful a 
place as Greenfield Hill. When he first came to Greenfield 
he lived about a mile north of the center in the house 
known to us as the Willis Bronson place, but soon pur- 
chased a home of his own on the main street leading south 
from the church, where he ever afterward lived. 

Besides the two fully written sermons every Sunday, 
one in the morning and one in the afternoon, he maintained 
prayer-meetings through the entire period of his ministry, 
held Sabbath evenings and Friday evenings, in the school- 
houses and in private houses, and to these he was con- 
scientiously faithful. Mr. Sturges was a plain, earnest and 
unassuming preacher of the word, and not a believer in 
flowery rhetoric. He was a good preacher and a better 
pastor. There was in him a most beautiful and wonderful 
modesty that led him never to speak of himself or attempt 
to push himself forward. He had enjoyed numerous 
honors during college days, but his peculiar shyness led 
him to refrain from mentioning such honors. As class 
leader and presiding officer, he had been presented with 
a staff of office or "bully," suitably inscribed, indicating 
that he was a favorite among his classmates. 

For many years he served as school visitor in the local 
school. As a pastor, his advice was often sought by his 
brethren in the ministry, and by ecclesiastical councils. 
In short, he enjoyed the confidence, the love, and respect of 
all who knew him. 

The names of his children are as follows: Edward 
Baker, lawyer, Scranton, Pa. ; Laura Elizabeth, at home ; 
William Hayward, merchant, St. Louis, Mo. ; Frank Caleb, 
lawyer, Wilkesbarre, Pa. ; Annie Maud, wife of Rev. D. N. 
Prentice, Greenfield Hill. 



86 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

In a quiet and shaded corner, on a gently sloping hillside, 
of Oak Lawn Cemetery, his body lies buried, and his wife, 
who outlived him by twenty years, rests beside him. 

Soon after Mr. Sturges' death, the following resolutions 
were adopted by the Standing Committee of the Greenfield 
Church : 

"The Standing Committee of the Greenfield Church in the 
departure of the Rev. Thomas B. Sturges, mourn their separation 
from a beloved and venerable brother, who has been identified with 
the church for a long period of years. 

"His only pastorate was with the Greenfield Church. Here for a 
quarter of a century he labored in the gospel, and sowed the seed of 
the kingdom of heaven. Faithful, dilligent, humble, devoted, meek 
and fervent, he ministered in the pulpit, and from house to house, 
speaking the truth in love, and setting a holy example to the flock. 

"The Committee resolves : — 

i. That a memorial service be held in the church, including a 
sermon by the pastor, with other appropriate exercises. 

2. That we hereby express to the bereaved family the deep sym- 
pathy and sorrow, made known to us, on the part of the entire 
parish. 

3. That a copy of this paper be sent to the family of the Rev. 
Thomas B. Sturges. 

Signed by the Standing Committee, 

Greenfield Hill, Conn., May 23, 1887." 

In accordance with these resolutions a memorial service 
was held at the church on June 26 following, the exercises 
consisting of 

Invocation — Rev. George W. Banks. 

Prayer — Rev. Marcus Burr. 

Reading of Resolutions of Standing Committee. 

Memorial Discourse — Rev. G. S. Plumley. 

Address— Rev. George W. Banks. 

Prayer— Rev. G. S. Plumley. 




REV. R. P. HIBBARD IN 187O. 



CHAPTER IX. 
Rev. R. P. Hibbard and Rev. H. B. Smith, 1868-1877. 

THE ninth settled pastor of the Greenfield Church was 
Rufus Piercy Hibbard, who was unanimously called 
in March, 1868, on a salary of $1,200 a year. At the time 
of the call, he was but twenty-four years of age and a stu- 
dent at Yale Divinity School, having graduated in 1863 
from the College of the City of New York. The following 
letter is the acceptance of the call : 

"To the Congregational Church & Ecclesiastical Society at Green- 
field Hill, Dear Brethren & Friends: — 

I have received the call you have been pleased to extend to me, and 
after having made all the inquiries and sought all the advice that 
the limited time would permit, I have concluded to accept the call 
subject to the following conditions: First, that my ordination shall 
not take place until the month of August, (the day to be designated 
by you.) My reason for this is because I have not yet completed 
my preparatory course of study, and will not be free to enter upon 
any new engagement until after the 31st of July. Second, That our 
relationship shall continue only as long as it shall be mutually 
agreeable and beneficial and that either party have the right of 
dissolving the connection by giving to the other three months 
notice. My reason for this is, that as we cannot foresee the future 
it would be wise to guard against any future misunderstanding. 

And now, brethren, I would express to you my gratitude for the 
confidence you have reposed in me, and for the very generous 
manner in which you have manifested it. I sincerely trust that our 
mutual love may be fervent and abiding. I deeply feel my weakness 
and inexperience, and as you have so abundantly offered of your 
means for my temporal support, may I not also rely fully upon your 
prayers and sympathy? The work before us is very great. We each 
of us have our peculiar portion. Will you not bear with my infirm- 
ities and sustain me spiritually in my labors among you? May the 
affection and esteem you have so freely given me increase manifold 
if in the providence of God I should abide with you. 

Sincerely yours, 

R. Piercy Hibbard." 



88 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

Before taking up his residence in Greenfield, Mr. Hib- 
bard was married, July 2, 1868, at Sayville, Long Island, 
to Sarah A. Brown. 

The date of the ordination was August 4, 1868. The 
services consisted of: introductory prayer by Rev. D. R. 
Austin ; sermon by Rev. Edward E. Rankin, D.D. ; charge 
to the pastor by Rev. Frederick Alvord; right hand of 
fellowship by Rev. Martin Dudley; address to the people 
by Rev. B.J. Relyea ; concluding prayer by Rev. George W. 
Banks. 

The year 1868 has gone down in the records of the 
church as the most successful year in our history for the 
ingathering of new members, 66 having been added, 47 
of them on the Sunday of February 9th. These new mem- 
bers were received by the Revs. Wm. Fenn and G. L. 
Hovey, following the labors of Rev. J. D. Potter, the 
Evangelist. 

It was during the ministry of Mr. Hibbard (December, 
1869) that a special parish meeting was held to consider 
the advisability of building a parsonage; but on account 
of too many other expenses at that time, the matter was 
postponed. 

While located in Greenfield, Mr. and Mrs. Hibbard 
boarded at Mr. Moses Beers', and at Miss Adelia Hubbell's, 
and later occupied the house that stood across the street 
from the present residence of Mr. John Meeker. 

Early in April, 1872, Mr. Hibbard sent in his resigna- 
tion and on the 23d of the same month the consociation 
met and dissolved the relation between pastor and people. 

After leaving Greenfield Mr. Hibbard preached in East 
Church, New Haven, seven years; New England Church, 
Brooklyn, six years; Chicopee Falls, Mass., three years; 
Gloucester, Mass., six years; Tryon, N. C, one year; 
Sayville, Long Island, five years. In 191 1, he was forced 
to resign his pastorate on Long Island, on account of very 



Rev. R. P. Hibbard and Rev. H. B. Smith, 1868-1877 89 

poor health, and at the present time is living with a son 
and daughter at East Lansing, Mich. Mr. and Mrs. Hib- 
bard have had three children, as follows : Sidney Bartlett, 
engaged in real estate and insurance business ; Helen Ruth, 
at home; and Rufus Percival, Ph.D., instructor at Michi- 
gan Agricultural College. 

Mr. Hibbard is remembered by the older residents in 
Greenfield to-day. He was a most attractive young man, 
and his ability as a pastor consisted largely in the gift of 
personal magnetism which he possessed. 

The following letter was sent by Mr. Hibbard in Jan- 
uary, 1912, to be read at the annual church meeting: 

"Dear Friends : 

It is now forty-four years since I became your pastor (Aug. 
4, 1868), fresh from the Divinity School. I had but two written 
sermons on hand when I was ordained, and written sermons then 
seemed necessary. I was raw, green, inexperienced, and followed a 
pastor (Rev. Mr. Sturges) who had served you faithfully for 
twenty-five years. Yet what a welcome you gave me ! How many 
names occur to me now, that bring pleasure and gratitude as I 
recall them. Are any of them still with you I wonder? I have 
heard nothing for many years regarding the church or its members, 
but as the years have multiplied, I know that most, if not nearly all 
those who welcomed me must have gone to their long home. Dea. 
Morehouse was one, — mostly blind and nearly deaf, but intimate 
acquaintance proved him to be the "salt of the earth." Always 
faithful in church attendance, always cheerfully bearing his part 
in all christian duty. So, too, was his son-in-law, Dea. N. Barlow 
Hill. So do I recall Dea. John Banks and W. O. Merwin. What 
a goodly company there was of the Banks', the Bradleys, the Burrs! 
What true friends I found in Robert Campbell, Dr. Blakeman, the 
Betts' and many others ! The memory of these dear ones is very 
pleasant to me. We had good times and encouraging success 
together in the work of the gospel. The church has had a long 
and honorable history. Founded in colonial times, it out-runs by 
a half century our national life. What a great cloud of witnesses 
surround you! The unseen hosts of your membership far out- 
number those present at this annual roll-call. What a heritage is 
yours to hold forth the word of life to every soul in your vicinity; 



go Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

to guard the treasure committed to you; to transmit it unbroken 
and enhanced to those who may follow. May you have abundant 
grace for this high calling. 

R. P. Hibbard." 

On May 12, 1873, a call was extended to Rev. Henry B. 
Smith to become pastor at $1,000 a year. The following is 
his letter of acceptance : 

"To the Cong. Church and Society of Greenfield Hill, Conn. 
Dear Brethren : — 

Since I have been informed by your committee of the unanimous 
invitation extended to me to settle with you in the work of the 
gospel ministry and become your pastor, I have taken the subject 
into prayerful consideration, for I desire to know and do what will 
be most pleasing to the Great Head of the Church. In forming the 
pastoral relation there are momentous interests involved that will 
affect the happiness of pastor and people for time and for eternity. 
But the universal good feeling manifested toward me and the 
unanimity of the call from the church and society incline me to 
regard it as coming from the Lord and influence me to accept of it, 
provided a suitable parsonage is provided for my family free from 
rent. I do this the more cheerfully as I am informed that you are 
a kind and generous people who will provide things needful for the 
support, happiness, and usefulness of your pastor and his family. 
It is with some fear and trembling, knowing my insufficiency, that 
I have concluded to accept your invitation on account of the 
arduous, difficult and responsible duties attending every settled 
pastor. Still relying upon the help of Divine Grace and with a 
consciousness of my own imperfection, I shall hope for your hearty 
cooperation in every good work and trust in your charity, ever 
desiring that the relation which may be formed between us shall be 
for the welfare of Zion and for the glory of our blessed Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. I should also like to have the society vote 
to pay my salary quarterly and to give me the privilege of taking 
annually a vacation of three Sabbaths in the year. Yours in love 
and in the bonds of the gospel, 

Henry B. Smith." 

Mr. Smith was educated in the public schools of West 
Springfield, Mass., Wilbraham and Monson Academies, 




REV. H. B. SMITH. 



Rev. R. P. Hibbard and Rev. H. B. Smith, 1 868-1877 91 

Amherst College and Andover Theological Seminary. He 
came to Greenfield from Newtown, Conn., where he had 
preached for seven years. His earlier pastorates were in 
the following places: West Granville, Mass., Abington, 
Conn., and Burlington, Conn. 

The services of installation, July 1, 1873, were: invo- 
cation and reading of scriptures by Rev. Franklin S. Fitch ; 
introductory prayer by Rev. B. J. Relyea; sermon by Rev. 
James W. Hubbell; ordaining prayer by Rev. Martin 
Dudley ; charge to the pastor by Rev. E. E. Rankin, D.D. ; 
right hand of fellowship by Rev. S. J. M. Merwin ; con- 
cluding prayer by Rev. Edwin Johnson. 

About the time Mr. Smith accepted the call to Green- 
field, the parsonage matter was agitated again, perhaps 
to some extent due to the suggestion in the pastor's letter 
of acceptance in regard to a home "for himself and family 
free from rent." A committee consisting of Morris M. 
Merwin and Oliver Burr was appointed to investigate the 
matter. This committee, on June 24, 1873, reported that 
Dea. William B. Morehouse had that day purchased an 
acre of land of B. B. Banks for $1,000, and offered the 
same to the society for $400; and in addition Dea. More- 
house offered $1,000 more as his subscription towards a 
building. Other subscriptions were coming in rapidly, and 
the parsonage question was now solved. The following 
were appointed as a building committee: Oliver Burr, 
M. M. Merwin, Rev. H. B. Smith, Dea. W. B. Morehouse 
and Dea. N. B. Hill. Work was started at once by the 
contractor, Mr. Uriah Perry, but the building was not 
entirely completed until the spring of 1874, the pastor's 
family living in the meantime in the small house owned 
by Mr. B. B. Banks. 

Some of the items of expense in connection with the 
building of the parsonage are these : 



92 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

One and one-fourth acres land $1300. 

Contract for house $3575- 

Extras on house $150. 

Barns and out-buildings $405. 

Well, etc. (dug by Joel Banks) $231. 
Fences, painting, etc. $325. 

Flagging stone, drain, etc. $200. 

A vote of the society ordered that no more be spent 
on the parsonage than should be subscribed for that pur- 
pose, so no indebtedness was incurred. It is of interest 
to note that the church pews in 1875 were assessed at 
$1,272, a much larger figure than at the present time. 

A red-letter day in the history of the parish occurred 
May 18, 1876, when the church celebrated its 150th anni- 
versary. The event had been planned weeks ahead, and 
was most successfully carried out. The morning exercises 
consisted of an address of welcome by Dea. N. B. Hill, 
reply by Rev. George W. Banks, and an Historical Dis- 
course by Rev. Henry B. Smith. In the afternoon there 
was a Commemorative Address on Rev. Timothy Dwight, 
the fourth pastor of the church, by a grandson, Rev. Prof. 
Timothy Dwight, D.D. In spite of the fact that the day 
was rainy, the church was filled to its utmost limits. A 
bountiful collation was served at the noon intermission in 
the basement of the church. At the request of several 
prominent members of the society, all the addresses of 
the day were ordered printed in a pamphlet and copies 
distributed throughout the parish. The historical address 
by Rev. H. B. Smith in particular is of great value. 

Early in July, 1877, Rev. Mr. Smith read his resigna- 
tion, and on July 24 was dismissed by the consociation 
from his pastorate. 

From Greenfield, Mr. Smith went to Staffordville, Conn., 
where he preached two years, then purchased a small farm 
at South Amherst, Mass., where he died, August 10, 1882. 



c 
r 

H 




Rev. R. P. Hibbard and Rev. H. B. Smith, 1868-1877 93 

He was buried in West Springfield, Mass. His widow, 
Sarah H. Smith, survives him, and has lived in Bridgeport 
the past thirty years. 

The family consisted of ten children, seven sons and 
three daughters. The oldest son, Reuben, is located in 
Oberlin, O. ; William, teaching in New York state ; the next 
four, Robert, Henry, Allison and Arthur, located in New- 
town, Conn., and engaged in newspaper work; Charles, 
a minister at Barre, Mass. ; Clara, deceased, was the wife 
of Rev. James S. Thresher of Bridgeport ; Sarah, deceased, 
was the wife of Rev. Dewitt C. Jenks, formerly a mission- 
ary to Japan, but now of Colorado Springs, Col. ; Emily, 
wife of Mr. Arthur D. Fairchild, Newtown, Conn. 



CHAPTER X. 

Later Pastors, 1877-19 13. 

IT was more than a year after Mr. Smith's resignation 
before the pulpit was regularly supplied by any 
preacher. Rev. Isaac Ogden Rankin, the son of the Fair- 
field minister, Rev. E. E. Rankin, D.D., preached from 
November 10, 1878, to June 8, 1879, and at the end of 
that time was unanimously called to settle, but declined. 

Mr. Rankin, now the associate editor of "The Congre- 
gationalist and Christian World," Boston, Mass., and 
known to many of us as a writer of both prose and poetry, 
wrote to us recently as follows : 

"I have most delightful memories of the kindness and patience 
of the Greenfield people with a raw student, and wish I might keep 
up a closer acquaintance with the dear old church. If you ever 
come to Boston, I wish you would look me up, and tell me about 
them. I am grown too deaf for much venturing out or visiting." 

On September 7, 1879, a unanimous call was given 
Rev. Chester Bridgman to supply the pulpit. His pastorate 
began October 5 of that year, and continued to August 
31, 1881. Rev. Mr. Bridgman was born July 3, 1833, 
graduated from Amherst College in 1856, and Princeton 
Theological Seminary in 1859. 

Mr. Bridgman had previously preached in Woodstown, 
N. J., Ludlow, Mass., Medfield, Mass., Williamstown, N. J., 
Portland, Pa., and Torringford, Conn. While in New 
England he had served Congregational churches, but in 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey he was a Presbyterian. 
Greenfield was his last charge. From there he moved to 
Woodstown, N. J., and for a number of years supplied 




PIPE ORGAN INSTALLED IO97. 



Later Pastors, 1877-1913 95 

various pulpits in the vicinity as opportunity afforded. He 
died May 23, 1907, and is survived by his widow, Sarah 
R., and an only child and daughter, Jessie G. Bridgman. 

The most important events in the society during the pas- 
torate of Mr. Bridgman were the receipt of a $1,000 legacy 
from the estate of Dea. William B. Morehouse, April 1, 
1880, and the remodeling of the church during the summer 
of 1881. In regard to the latter, when it became imperative 
that repairs should be made and old debts paid off, the 
sum of $2,226 was raised by subscription, $600 of which 
was used for paying indebtedness, and the balance for 
repairs. The committee on repairs were : Frank E. Perry, 
Moses Beers, N. B. Hill, Joseph Betts, Moses Banks, and 
Oliver Burr. The old pulpit was sawed down, the vesti- 
bule and stairways entirely changed, the gallery enlarged 
to accommodate the Sunday-School, and the entire interior 
re-decorated. The society worshipped in the academy dur- 
ing the summer. About this time the ladies purchased the 
preacher's desk and chairs, at an expense of $140. These 
articles of furniture are still in use. 

On May 25, 1882, Rev. Dwight Nelson Prentice, who 
had preached on several occasions, was called to serve as 
pastor, with a salary at the rate of $800 per year; he was 
afterwards invited to continue as pastor at a larger salary, 
but remained only until August, 1883. 

It was during Mr. Prentice's pastorate that the question 
of suspending the afternoon preaching service first came 
up. It makes us smile to-day to think that such a small 
matter should be such a difficult one to settle, but there were 
those in the parish who desired two long sermons every 
Sunday and those who wished the afternoon service 
omitted, so it was only by degrees that the arrangement 
now in use in nearly all churches, and the only one that 
we would think of accepting to-day as reasonable or 
sensible, was adopted. 



96 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

During Mr. Prentice's ministry the church grew and 
prospered. Mr. Prentice was a good preacher and a con- 
scientious and earnest worker. He was a graduate of Yale 
College and Yale Divinity School, and had preached at 
North Branford, Conn., before coming to Greenfield. 
From his charge here, he went to North Middleboro, Mass., 
where he was installed, and later preached at Essex Junc- 
tion, Vt. His native place was Mystic, Conn. He was 
married, June 11, 1884, to Annie M. Sturges, daughter of 
Rev. T. B. Sturges, and a few years later, on account of 
his health, retired from active work in the ministry, and 
located in Greenfield, where he has devoted his attention 
to some extent to fruit-growing and market-gardening, 
being frequently called upon to occupy some pulpit or 
officiate at some funeral. Mr. and Mrs. Prentice have six 
children: Dwight, Maud, Thomas, Helen, Samuel and 
Winthrop. 

The eleventh settled pastor at Greenfield was Rev. Gardi- 
ner Spring Plumley, who was unanimously called by the 
church and society on November 12, 1883, at a salary of 
$1,000 per year. He was installed January 22, 1884. Mr. 
Plumley was born August 11, 1827, in Washington, D. C, 
and son of Alexander and Hannah K. Plumley, the latter 
a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He graduated at Yale 
College in 1850; at Union Theological Seminary, New 
York, in 1855 ; was pastor of Bloomingdale Presbyterian 
Church until 1857; pastor of the Presbyterian Church at 
Metucben, N. J., from 1858 to 1875 ; pastor of the North 
Dutch Church on Fulton Street, New York City, in 1876; 
and for the next eight years was organist and director 
of music at the Moravian Church, New York City; at 
the Canal Street Presbyterian Church, New York City; 
at the Third Congregational Church, New Haven, Conn. ; 
at the Yale College Chapel; and at the South Dutch 
Church, New York City. For a time he was pastor of 




REV. G. S. PLUMLEY, D.D. 



Later Pastors, 1877-19 13 97 

Calvary Church, Worth Street, New York City, where he 
was active in city mission work. He was editor of "The 
Presbyterian," and a contributor to many magazines. He 
held important offices in Presbyterian Assemblies, and was 
chosen to many prominent positions in church work. It 
was while pastor of the Greenfield Church that he was 
honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Yale 
University. 

Dr. Plumley's labors in Greenfield were crowned with a 
large measure of success, for many members were received 
into the church during his ministry. He organized the 
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, November 
21, 1885, and for nine years served as its president. Early 
in his ministry he introduced the annual observance of 
Children's Day in the Sunday-School. 

The society also prospered, and came into possession of 
several legacies, as follows: in 1884, $1,000 from the estate 
of Mrs. Anna Nichols (a daughter of the late Abram D. 
Baldwin) ; in 1886, $500 from the estate of Dr. Rufus 
Blakeman; and in 1893, $500 from the estate of Miss 
Sally Ogden. In 1885 the bell now in use was purchased 
and hung in place, the old one, like the Liberty bell, being 
cracked. 

In 1891, the church and community were called to mourn 
the loss of Deacon Joseph Donaldson, a man identified 
with the church and society for nearly a quarter of a 
century. Soon after Deacon Donaldson's death, his asso- 
ciate in office, Deacon N. B. Hill, resigned on account of 
his advanced age and feeble health, and on May 10, 1891, 
John H. Hull and Dwight M. Banks were chosen to fill 
the places made vacant. 

In the summer of 1891, Dr. Plumley was called upon to 
part with his wife, — a blow from which he never seemed 
to thoroughly recover. He preached regularly, however, 
until his final illness during the winter of 1893-94, and 



98 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

died February 21, 1894. The funeral services were held 
at the Brick Presbyterian Church, Fifth Avenue, New York 
City, the same church with which Dr. Plumley had united 
in his boyhood, his membership there continuing until his 
death. The interment was in the family plot at Metuchen, 
N. J., where Dr. Plumley had served as pastor for so many 
years. 

Rev. Dr. Plumley was a man of the highest scholarship, 
and of great ability, both as a preacher and as a pastor; 
a man who was so exceedingly agreeable that his presence 
was sought not only for every religious but for every 
social occasion. He could entertain with the richest of 
anecdotes, of which he always had a most liberal supply, 
or could preach an excellent sermon on any occasion, extem- 
poraneously if necessary. Withal he was a man of great 
dignity ; being large of stature, erect in his carriage, grace- 
ful in every movement, his very presence seemed to dignify 
the occasion whether a wedding, a church service or a 
funeral. 

Dr. Plumley had six children: Rev. William E., who 
died in 1904, at the time of his death, master of a school 
in Scranton, Pa. ; Emma, widow of the late Rev. G. S. 
Burroughs of Oberlin, now located in Cleveland, Ohio ; 
Lillie, wife of Dr. A. N. Phillips, Glenbrook, Conn. ; 
Gardner L., a magazine writer, New York City ; Alexander 
R., manager of coal yard, Winsted, Conn. ; Miss Emily L., 
Glenbrook, Conn. 

The next settled pastor, following Dr. Plumley, was Rev. 
Joseph B. Kettle, a young man who was just completing 
his studies at the Yale Divinity School. He was prepared 
for college at Jamestown High School, Jamestown, N. Y., 
and graduated from Colorado College, Col. 

Mr. Kettle was called to Greenfield, March 9, 1895, and 
ordained here April 16, following. On June 3, of the same 
year, he married Grace G. Gilbert of Grand Junction, Col. 




REV. JOSEPH B. KETTLE 



Later Pastors, 1877-1913 99 

A number of events worthy of mention occurred during 
his pastorate. The church was supplied with new cushions 
in the spring of 1895, before which time each pew-holder 
had furnished his own cushion, resulting in a great variety 
of styles and colors and many bare seats. The following 
year rows of young maple trees were set out at the sides 
and front of the church to replace the dying elms. Two 
street-lamps on iron posts were placed in front of the 
church. New hymn-books were secured for use in church 
services. With the assistance of the Village Improvement 
Society, a concrete walk was laid from the church steps 
to the street. 

Through the kindness of Mrs. Anna M. Bartram of 
Black Rock, stained glass windows were placed in the 
church during the summer of 1897, at an expense of more 
than $400. These windows were given by Mrs. Bartram 
in memory of the first pastor of the church, Rev. John 
Goodsell, who was her great-grandfather. 

For several years, by means of concerts and entertain- 
ments, there had been accumulating a fund eventually to 
be used for the purchase of a pipe organ. This fund was 
sufficiently increased by subscriptions in the spring of 1897, 
to warrant the purchase being made. The society selected 
an organ manufactured by Johnson and Son, Westfield, 
Mass., and voted to have it placed in the rear of the pulpit. 
By turning in the old organ and paying for all cartage, 
the cost of the new one was $1491. 

The church and society under Mr. Kettle's leadership, 
prospered not only materially but spiritually, for many 
were added to the church. Mr. Kettle was a good pastor, 
ransacking every nook and corner of the parish in search 
of those who were poor, or sad, or suffering, or neglected ; 
in short, looking for any that he could help. In his preach- 
ing, he was "dead in earnest," his one aim being to save 
souls. He was very much beloved throughout the parish, 



ioo Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

and his departure to other fields on January 14, 1900, 
was deeply regretted. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kettle have welcomed four children to 
their family circle. Joseph, Jr., and Ruth were born in 
Greenfield, but the latter died February 3, 1900. The two 
younger boys are Lester W. and Arthur B. Kettle. 

Since leaving Greenfield, Mr. Kettle has preached at 
the following places: Rapid City, S. D., three years; 
Amboy, 111., two years ; Tabernacle Congregational Church, 
St. Joseph, Mo., five years. He is now pastor of the 
Orthodox Congregational Church, Leominster, Mass. 

The thirteenth and last settled pastor that the church 
has had was Rev. William H. Gane, LL.D., who was called 
to Greenfield December 31, 1900, and installed May 14, 
1901. 

Dr. Gane was a native of Ingersoll, Ontario ; educated 
in the public and high schools and Collegiate Institute of 
that town, and the Methodist institutions of Ontario ; 
received the degree of LL.D. from a Methodist college 
in the United States; was ordained in 1879 and up to 
1893 served Methodist churches. His first Congregational 
parish was Peterboro, N. H., where he preached from 1893 
to 1900. 

The events of interest that occurred in the society during 
Dr. Gane's pastorate are as follows: the adoption of the 
envelope system of church offerings, May 10, 1902; the 
receipt of a legacy of $2,000 from the estate of Samuel 
Middlebrook in 1903, and one of $5,000 from the estate of 
Miss Sarah A. Banks in 1905 ; the presentation to the 
church from the Christian Endeavor Society of the indi- 
vidual communion service, which was used for the first 
time on March 4, 1906; the painting of the exterior of the 
church; the covering of all the side walls and ceilings of 
interior of the church with metal in the fall of 1906, at 
an expense of more than $1,000; the re-carpeting of the 






ijiflp 



?*# 




- 



REV. W. H. GANE, LI..D. 



Later Pastors, 1877-1913 101 

church by the ladies at an expense of over $300 in 1906; 
all the above work being paid for by popular subscription 
and without leaving the society in debt. 

Dr. Gane resigned and was dismissed April 26, 1908, 
accepting a call to Jewett City, Conn., which position he 
still holds. 

As an eloquent and gifted preacher of the gospel, Dr. 
Gane probably surpassed the great majority of ministers. 
He seemed to have a natural talent for pulpit oratory, and 
his sermons were most impressive. The labors of Dr. and 
Mrs. Gane bore fruit in the community, and they will be 
long and kindly remembered by many families. 

Dr. and Mrs. Gane have three children, Silas, Pearl and 
May. 

The present pastor of the church, Rev. Edgar Hammond 
Olmstead, was unanimously called to Greenfield September 
25, 1908, and began his duties here the 22d of November, 
following. He is a graduate of Tri-State College, Indiana, 
Oberlin Theological Seminary, and received the degree of 
A.M. from Yale University in 1909. He has served the 
following parishes : Lyons, Ohio, 1893- 1895 ; West Madi- 
son Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, 1 899-1 901 ; Granby, Conn., 
1902-1904; Kensington, Conn., 1904-1908. He married 
Minnie L. Pay on June 7, 1899, and they have three children, 
Geraldine, Marguerite and Raymond. 

Mr. Olmstead's pastorate has been marked with one 
event which stands out as the most prominent in the 
material welfare of the church and society since the present 
church was erected 58 years ago, — the erection of the church 
parlors. 

Parlors had been talked of for years. The ladies had 
considered the raising of the church and building parlors 
in the basement; they had considered the erecting of a 
building for the purpose on the parsonage property; they 
had endeavored to purchase a vacant lot in Greenfield ; and 



102 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 

several other plans had been considered only to be aban- 
doned on account of the obstacles that arose in every 
instance. 

The legislature of 191 1, through the Fairfield repre- 
sentative, and at the suggestion of Dea. D. M. Banks and 
Mr. Simeon Pease, passed an act releasing the interest of 
the state in the land now occupied by the Greenfield Con- 
gregational Society and used for church purposes, and in 
any land that may be used for an addition to the church. 
This action was taken with the idea that since the common 
had formerly and for many years been used as a "Place 
of Parade," the state might have interests in the land. 

On April 1, 1912, the town of Fairfield, by vote at a 
town-meeting, for the sum of $10, sold to the Greenfield 
Congregational Society the land now occupied by the 
church, and a strip in the rear 50 by 40 feet, this action 
being taken to make doubly sure that the society had good 
title to the land before any addition should be erected. 

In December, 191 1, the society voted to erect the parlors 
on the rear of the church, and the following building com- 
mittee was appointed: Simeon Pease, John P. Morehouse, 
Charles Gray, Frank E. Perry, Miss L. E. Sturges, Miss A. 
M. Wakeman and Mrs. G. H. Merwin. An injunction by 
the executor of the estate of Miss Susan Nichols, delayed 
the commencement of the addition until July 9, 191 2, when 
it was removed by Judge D. J. Piatt of the United States 
District Court in session at Hartford. Appeal was taken 
by the executor of the Nichols estate, and the case tried 
out in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in New 
York City, January 6, 191 3. The decision of this court 
also favors the society, and practically carries with it the 
right to use in the future as much of the common as the 
growth of the church shall require. Elmore S. Banks has 
acted as attorney for the society. 

In spite of legal obstructions, the addition to be used 
as church parlors was commenced July 17, 1912, and com- 



Later Pastors, 1877-19 13 103 

pleted the November following, Frank E. Perry being the 
contractor. The entire cost has been in excess of $2,000. 
The parlors were formally opened on the evening of 
November 20, 191 2, when a dedicatory supper was given, 
followed by addresses from descendants of former pastors 
and others, the church being rilled to its full capacity. 

Other events of less importance have occurred during 
Mr. Olmstead's pastorate, but they are fresh in our mem- 
ories and need no mention. It is safe to say that the church 
was never more prosperous or better supported than it 
is to-day, and that divine services were never better 
attended than they have been during the past year. 



And so we conclude the record of a church and society 
through six generations. We are glad that we have a his- 
tory and should feel sorry did we not have one, but our 
record in the years to come will depend, not on the deeds 
of our forefathers and the history they have handed down 
to us, but on the amount of earnest, consecrated effort we 
put forth for the upbuilding and advancement of the church 
that we love. 



o4 Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield 



APPENDIX 

Pastors. 

John Goodsell, May 18, 1726, to April 20, 1756. 

Seth Pomeroy, Dec. 8, 1757, to July 1, 1770. 

William Mackey Tennent, D.D., June 17, 1772, to Dec., 1781. 

Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., Nov. 5, 1783, to Aug. 11, 1795. 

Horace Holly, D.D., Sept. 13, 1805, to Sept. 13, 1808. 

William Belden, Oct. 1, 1812, to April 4, 1821. 

Richard V. Dey, Jan. 15, 1823, to Dec, 1828. 

Thomas B. Sturges, June 10, 1842, to June 4, 1867. 

Rufus Piercy Hibbard, Aug. 4, 1868, to April 23, 1872. 

Henry B. Smith, July 1, 1873, to July 24, 1877. 

Gardiner S. Plumley, D.D., Jan. 22, 1884, to Feb. 21, 1894. 

Joseph B. Kettle, April 16, 1895, to Jan. 14, 1900. 

William Henry Gane, LL.D., May 14, 1901, to April 26, 1908. 

The above are the dates of ordination or installation and dismissal, 
and do not show the exact time of service. 



Pastors not Settled. 

Samuel Blatchford, D.D., April 17, 1796, to 1797. 
Stanley Griswold, 1803 to 1804. 
S. David Austin, 1810 to 1811. 
Nathaniel Freeman, Oct. 1, 1832, to April 1, 1841. 
Isaac Ogden Rankin, Nov. 10, 1878, to June 8, 1879. 
Chester Bridgman, Oct. 5, 1879, to Aug. 31, 1881. 
Dwight N. Prentice, May, 1882, to Aug., 1883. 
Edgar H. Olmstead, Nov. 22, 1908, to 



Appendix 105 



Deacons. 

John Hyde, died 1744, aged 76. 

Daniel Burr, in office 1733, died 1748, age 78. 

David Meeker, died 1754, aged 67. 

Moses Dimon, in office 1761, died 1766, aged 69. 

Samuel Wakeman, in office 1754 and 1761. 

Joseph Bradley, in office 1771, died 1776, aged 66. 

Joseph Hill, in office 1771 and 1783, died 1797, aged 97. 

David Williams, in office 1781 and 1795. 

Burr Gilbert, elected Nov. 12, 1806, died 1810. 

Ebenezer Banks, elected 1810, died July 1, 1838. 

Wakeman Lyon, elected 1810, in office 1830, died May 23, 1831. 

Hull Bradley, in office 1841. resigned Feb. 9, 1845, died Sept. 2, 1850, 

aged 82. 
Daniel Banks, in office 1810, died Jan. 16. 1839, in 100th year. 
Seth Jennings, elected Feb. 9, 1845. 
John Banks, elected 1846, died 1886. 
William B. Morehouse, elected 1840, died 1880. 
Joseph Donaldson, elected 1867, died 1891. 
N. Barlow Hill, elected July 7, 1867, died 1907. 
John H. Hull, elected May 10, 1891, resigned April 22, 1906, died 

May 28, 1908. 
Dwight M. Banks, elected May 10, 1891. 
George H. Merwin, elected April 22, 1906. 



LOCATION OF PROPERTY OF REV. JOHN GOODSELL. 

The following deeds taken from the old Town Meeting Book or 
Book B. of Fairfield Land Records, show very plainly the location 
of Rev. John Goodsell's property at the north and west of the 
present church green : 

i. "The proprietors of the common and undivided land in Fair- 
field, (89 in number) to John Goodsell, clerk. 1726. 

Seven acres of land to be laid out in some convenient place in the 
mile of common, in one or more parcells by Capt. Dimon, Lt. Sturgis 
and Andrew Burr all of Fairfield, at their discretion so that it does 
not uncomode, stop or incumber any highway, or passage necessary 
and convenient for men with their carts and cattle to pass and 
repass, with all privileges and appurtenances thereto belonging." 

The above is the first deed on record from the proprietors. All 
of this land is in the first division or mile of common. The fol- 
lowing deed definitely locates the land conveyed by the former 
deed : 

2. "Mar. 16, 1727. Moses Dimon, Jona. Sturgis and Andrew Burr, 
being a committee appointed and empowererd by ye proprietors of 
said Fairfield, to John Goodsell, clerk. 

Land in Fairfield in ye mile of common near where Abraham 
Addams now dwells and in quantity 7 acres, and it is in length 
north-westerly and south-easterly 46 rods and 13 feet and in breadth 
24 rods, bounded on all sides by common land." 

3. "Mar. 11, 1750. Surveyed and laid out to Rev. John Goodsell 
of said Fairfield two pieces or slips of land in the mile of common 
or first division of common land, viz. : 

One piece situated easterly of said Goodsell's home lot, on said 
Goodsell's own right bounded; southerly on ye place of parade; 
easterly on a five rod highway; northerly on land laid out to 
Samuel Bradley of said Fairfield; westerly, part on said Goodsell's 
home lot and part on a three rod highway laid out for said 
Goodsell to come to his barn; in quantity 4 acres and 3 quarters 
and 2 rods; sized at 30 pounds per acre; the whole, 142 pounds, 
17 shillings, o pence. 

Also another piece situated southerly of said Goodsell's home lot; 
westerly on common land; southerly on a 5 rod highway; easterly 



O&muel Bradley 



Samuel Bradley 



John, Goods ell 

\1S0 





//tp/tway -fttn% Sh ecb 




First Ok 




JT SatHudBraAleys 
hctiit fr store. 



\ 



MAP OF GREENFIELD IN THE EARLY DAYS. 



Appendix 107 

on ye place of parade; in quantity 1 acre, 1 quarter and laid out 
by us, a committee appointed for yt purpose. 

Moses Dimon 

Gershom Banks 

John Bradley Jr. Committee." 

4. "Dec. 14, 1750. Surveyed and laid out to Samuel Bradley two 
pieces in ye mile of common or first division : 

One piece above and adjoining on southerly part on Mr. John 
Goodsell's home lot and part on common land in possession of said 
Goodsell ; easterly on country road ; northerly on a 3 rod highway ; 
westerly on common land ; containing 10 acres, 77 rods ; sized at 
28 pounds per acre; 293 pounds, 9 shillings and 6 pence." 

5. "Nov. 25, 175 1. Surveyed and laid out to Samuel Bradley of 
Fairfield a certain piece of land in ye mile of common or first 
division of common land in Fairfield, above and adjoining to the 
cross-highway that leads from David Meaker's to the sheep pen 
west of Mr. Goodsell's home lot and the 15 acres, so called; bounded 
southerly on said cross-highway; easterly, part on Mr. Goodsell's 
land or home lot, said Bradley's own land, and said 15 acres; 
northerly, in part on said 15 acres and part on land this day laid out 
to the heirs or assigns of Roger Knap, deceased of Fairfield ; 
southwesterly on a 4 rod highway or Sabbath road, so called, 
containing 43 acres and 3 quarters, etc." 



